Kitsune
by Rain in the Sunlight
Summary: Naruto is tired of being weak and decides to take matters into his own hands at a very early age. He begins to lead the double life of the clown we know and an ANBU agent. strong!Naruto super!Naruto
1. Wolf DudeSan!

**Disclaimer:** Naruto is not my property, and I'm not doing this for money.

_Kitsune_

by Rain in the Sunlight

Hi! I recently unearthed this positively _ancient_ fic that I wrote many years ago. I'm quite aware that some of the writing is a bit off and hard to understand. I'm rewriting it right now, but I wanted to post this version first to see if anyone likes my ideas. Can you leave me a note whether or not you want to read the rewrite, and of course reviews and advice are always welcome. Thanks! Rain in the sunlight

* * *

"Hi!" = spoken dialogue

'Hi!' = thoughts

**Hi!** = Kyuubi speaking

* * *

'Why me? Why me?' A little blonde boy, around the age of two cringed from the villager's jibes and punches. 'WHY?'

Naruto only saw a flash of black and silver before he started slipping into a darkness he almost welcomed now.

His last thoughts before he was lost to oblivion were 'Is that a wolf mask? I want one too…'

"What—is—it-with—these—people?" the silver-haired ANBU grunted in between blows meant to disperse the crowd.

"Am—I—supposed—to—know—taichou?" replied his brown-haired companion. "Oh, whatever, let's get this done faster." Wood started streaming out from the ANBU's side, molding into a replica of himself.

* * *

With their work finally done, Kakashi and Yamato picked up Naruto and rushed to the hospital.

"Not good," muttered one of the few medics who willingly treated the little Kyuubi vessel. "The villagers were a lot more violent this time." The medic shook his head sadly.

Yamato thought he spied a flash of—was that worry? through his taichou's eye, but it was so fast, Yamato thought he might have imagined it.

'Poor kid,' Kakashi thought, reminiscing of some old memory.

A shout snapped them both out of their reveries.

"NO! He's going into cardiac arrest! This is much worse than we originally thought!"

Now both ANBU were more visibly worried.

"Please don't tell me all that work went to waste" grumbled Yamato.

"SHH! Kakashi snapped and dragged Yamato outside.

'Eh? Why's taichou so concerned? Hmmm…." puzzled Yamato.

* * *

_Naruto's Inner World_

"Kyuuuu? Kyuubi?" A little voice inquired. Naruto stumbled around in a dark watery hallway.

**I'm over here Naruto.** Kyuubi no Kitsune poked his head out of bars in two gates with a peculiar looking piece of paper holding them together.

"Kyuubi!" The blonde ran toward the furry mass.

**What?** An audible gasp escaped from the demon fox. Naruto's whole body was bruised and battered. Suddenly, Naruto collapsed, mere inches from the bars. **No! **Kyuubi scooped Naruto inside with a long, soft, fuzzy tail, wishing desperately for him to be alive.

He had gotten close to the little blonde in the time that they had been together. Nobody, not even an ancient, 9-tailed demon fox could deny that the little blonde ball of energy's puppy eyes.

The giant fox sighed and decided it was best not to panic. He started channeling his bubbling red charka into the tiny form cradled in one of his tails.

* * *

"Wha-What?" The medic was baffled. The blonde's heart had stopped for 10 minutes, and despite all they were trying to do to, they had not been able to revive him. And now, the little boy's heart had started up so suddenly, and the bruises on his arms and legs were healing at an incredible speed. The two ANBU who had returned to the room to see how Naruto was doing after the 10 minutes when his heart had stopped were equally befuddled.

They were even more bemused when Naruto cracked his eyes open, peered at the ceiling, glanced at his unfamiliar surroundings, noticed the ANBU with _swords_, and ended with a terrified screech. Naruto jumped off the hospital bed, leaped over the doctor and hopped toward the door in one fluid motion. The only problem was the door was locked.

"AGHHHH!!!" Naruto looked around with wild eyes, fear clearly visible in the huge cerulean orbs. The ANBU were speechless at the display, and the medics were frozen in place from the shock of seeing a tiny child leaping out of the sickbed with a mastery of his body unseen from those his age, even more astonishing from one who had just come out of cardiac arrest.

Naruto was gibbering now. The ANBU deciphering the words automatically realized that he was blabbering about if they were going to hurt him, please don't, he just wanted to go home, he didn't think that anyone wanted the crackers in the garbage, he didn't mean to try to eat them, he didn't mean any harm, he…Naruto collapsed on the floor, shivering, his body still not fully recovered from the brutal attack from the villagers when they had found him in an abandoned alleyway.

A heartbeat later, a second howl of pain was heard as Naruto convulsed on the floor, the exertion of the attempted escape too much for his damaged body.

Another heartbeat later, the little boy had descended into the darkness once again.

* * *

_Naruto's Inner World_

**You shouldn't have done that, Naruto. **Grumbled the fox **All that hard work, and you collapse on me again.** The fox acted annoyed, but in reality, he was extremely concerned for Naruto.

"But, Kyuubi, I thought they were going to hurt us…"

**Just be quiet and let me finish with this.** The fox continued where he left off from before Naruto had awakened and caused a ruckus in the hospital room.

"OK, Kyuubi." sighed Naruto and he snuggled into the fox's tail, resting while Kyuubi finished up healing all his injuries…

* * *

"Uh…" was all everyone could say after a period of stunned disbelief.

The medics hurriedly deposited Naruto onto the hospital bed once more.

"What a kid, eh, taichou?" Yamato muttered.

"Yeah."

* * *

_At the Hokage's office_

"Hokage-sama!"

Sarutobi looked up hurriedly, "What happened?" Kakashi never looked so flustered, so it must have been something big. "Is something wrong?"

"Naruto needs better protection."

Eh? Kakashi was the last person he'd expected to say something like that.

"What do you mean?"

Kakashi recounted his experience with the little Kyuubi vessel at the hospital.

"He's going to get hurt even more if we leave him alone. The instances just keep getting worse!" Sandaime was surprised, he had never seen Kakashi say something that vehemently, and Kakashi definitely looked like he meant it.

"Well what do you suppose we do then, Kakashi?" Sarutobi queried. "I can't really adopt him because of the uproar it would create in the village, and all the orphanages either rejected or abused him badly.

"Eh? Oh..." Kakashi felt strongly about it, but he hadn't really thought of any solutions either. "I'll come back when I think of something."

* * *

_At the Hospital_

"Ahhhh! Where is that little brat? He'll get hurt if he goes wandering around again!"

Naruto had disappeared, and the only clue the hospital staff had of his location was the open window in the little ward.

* * *

"Yay, Kyuubi! We're out of that place with all the weird people and the funny smells!" Naruto jabbered excitedly.

**Where are we going, Kit?** Asked a curious Kyuubi.

"Just you wait, Kyuubi! I'm going to track that scent that was in the hospital room. I want to find that man with the wolf mask! I remember seeing him when I blacked out. Too bad I didn't recognize him when we were in that funny room."

**Yeah, because you tried running away even before I was done healing you…**

"Oh, I'm soooo sorry Kyuubi…"

**Awww, it's ok fluff ball.** Kyuubi couldn't stand the little blonde feeling sad and making those HUGE puppy eyes.

"THANKS KYUUBI!"

**It's nothing, Kit.** Said Kyuubi, melting as the little blonde bounced along the road. **Hey, Kit, I have a really good nose; do you want me to help?**

"Huh? Kyuubi? How would you do that?"

**Just hold on. Hey, why don't you come in here? It'll be easier to explain.**

"Sure!" Naruto sat under a tree away from prying eyes and entered his inner world.

**Hey, that was faster than last time! You're getting better! **Kyuubi was surprised. Usually it took Naruto to be in a life-threatening situation to be able to enter his inner world. When he tried to get in intentionally, it took him a while and lots of patience.

* * *

_Naruto's Inner World_

'HIIIIII Kyuubi!' Kyuubi sighed.

**Come here, Kit.**

'Sure, Kyuubi'

For the next stretch of time, Kyuubi instructed Naruto on how to meld Kyuubi's charka into certain parts of his body. Naruto was even more successful than Kyuubi thought. In no time, Naruto had popped back out and started sniffing for the "wolf" again with a red-chakra-enclosed nose.

* * *

"Aghh! Why does Hokage-sama ALWAYS give me the dirty work? Sure, I'm concerned for the little brat but it's not like I want to hunt him down when he jumps out of a hospital through a 4th story window!" Kakashi was annoyed, very annoyed, so annoyed he didn't notice a little blonde ball of energy finish sniffing and straighten up next to him before it began to talk.

"Oi! Oi! Wolf dude-san! Are you talking about me, 'cuz I'm not a brat!"

Kakashi spun around to the source of the chattering. "Eh?" His eyes widened. "What?!? It's you!?! Ackk! I'm going to kill you!"

Instantly, he knew that that was not the right thing to say. The little blonde was quivering in fear.

"Ahm…I didn't mean that literally…ahh…" Kakashi didn't know what to do. Naruto was still shaking. "Uhm…are you hungry?..." Instantly Naruto brightened up. "You have FOOD!?!?"

Kakashi was a bit shocked at the sudden change, "Uh…ok, what do you want? Uh…how about we go to Ichiraku to get ramen?" They were only a block away from the little ramen shop.

"What's ramen?" Naruto questioned.

Kakashi just started walking and Naruto tagged along. Soon, they reached a place where a wonderful smell was wafting from. Naruto's belly rumbled so loudly, Kakashi almost jumped away from fright. 'Poor kid, he must not have a lot to eat often.'

An hour, 10 bowls, and a lightened wallet later, Kakashi was in shock from how much ramen this _kid _could eat. It was amazing! He had just worked through each bowl of miso ramen barely breathing; Kakashi was almost afraid he would pass out from lack of air, but no, the kid just kept slurping and slurping and slurping. "Incredible."

"Eh? Did you say something Wolf dude-san?" Naruto was now finally finished and was looking at Kakashi curiously.

"Wah? Oh, uh, nothing. Let's go." Kakashi had thought that it would probably be best to bring Naruto to the ANBU headquarters until they could figure something else out. "Oh, and don't call me 'Wolf dude-san.'"

"So, what should I call you then?" Naruto was curious, and even more so when Kakashi kept silent. "Humph…fine, well at least tell me where we're going. I'm just sleeping in the park again, so I can't just keep walking this way or else I'll get to far from it, 'kay?" Naruto turned around and started off toward the park, but Kakashi grabbed his arm.

"No, I'm bringing you somewhere you'll be safe from att—I mean where you'll be comfortable." Kakashi didn't want to bring up those unpleasant memories in the little boy again.

Naruto looked confused. 'Why would anyone care about me? I'm a "demon" after all.'

"What's wrong? Don't you want somewhere warmer to sleep than out in the park?"

Well, he was right, it did get pretty cold outside…Naruto made up his mind. He gave Kakashi a huge grin. "Thanks Wolf dude-san!"

"No problem…HEY! Didn't I tell you not to call me that?"

"Than what _do_ I call you? You never did tell me." Naruto pouted.

"Hmph…eh?" Kakashi was thinking of something when he felt a little hand take his, and Naruto started to swing his arm back and forth as they walked. Kakashi was about to take his away, but when he looked down, he saw how happy the little blond was and couldn't bear to take away the little kid's smile that was probably a first in a long while.

Suddenly, Kakashi felt a sharp pain in his left eye (the one with the Sharingan), and Naruto froze and dropped to his knees.

'Ouch!!!' Both of them thought and clutched their eyes (an impressive feat for Kakashi since he had a mask on). Kakashi was too busy trying to manage the now searing pain in his left eye to notice the little blonde next to him slowly open his eyes and reveal… a one tomoe Sharingan in each.

Naruto hadn't known what had happened. 'I guess I got something stuck in my eyes.'

… Kyuubi was shocked. **Wow…kit, I got something to tell you later, but before you cause a commotion, try to drain the chakra in your eyes…**

'Ok, Kyuubi.' Naruto closed his eyes for a second and when he opened them again, his eyes had returned to normal. He looked up at Kakashi and tugged on his arm. "Are you ok?"

The pain had subsided a bit by now, and Kakashi cracked open his left eye. "Yeah, sure kid, let's keep going. I think I just got something stuck in my eye."

* * *

_At ANBU HQ_

"Yo. Everyone, this is Naruto. Naruto, these are my team members, Yamato, Anko, and Genma."

Naruto looked around. 'Hey, Kyuubi. Doesn't the guy, uhhh…Yamato, doesn't he seem familiar?'

**Yeah, he was there when you went ballistic in the hospital…He smells friendly.**

"Okee dokee, let's get you somewhere to sleep Naruto…Naruto?" Kakashi turned around from the door when he heard "Aww…isn't he cute?" Naruto had toddled up to Yamato and before the ANBU with the dog mask in his hand had known what had happened, the two-year old was on his lap and looking at him with wide, trusting eyes. Everybody looked at Yamato to see what would happen next.

Yamato had frozen when he saw Naruto suddenly there. 'Wha?' Then he saw that Naruto was already asleep with a funky grin plastered on his face. 'Aww…he really is cute.' Yamato ruffled Naruto's hair, but when he touched the fluffy blond strands, his hands felt like they had caught fire. The feeling spread up his fingers, across his hand, up his arm until it encompassed his entire body. Even though he didn't want to startle his teammates, he couldn't help but let out a gasp of pain.

'What the heck is going on?' Yamato had absolutely no idea what had happened, but it sure hurt like heck.

Naruto's eyes snapped open and he gave out a small whimper, jumped off of Yamato, and ran out the door. Kakashi watched the whole thing through narrowed eyes. Yamato didn't look like he did anything, and somehow, this reminded him of the incident before when they were walking to HQ.

"What did you do, Yamato? The little kid just wanted a hug." Anko was just as befuddled. Yamato wasn't the kind of person that would do anything to a little kid like that.

"Eh? I didn't do anything! I swear. One second he was dozing off, and the next second my ha—" Yamato stopped.

"Go on." Kakashi's voice came from the doorway. He had found Naruto huddled in a corner, asleep of all things.

"Uh…well…" Yamato didn't know if he should tell them. Maybe he had just imagined it; they would get concerned, and Anko might just laugh at him.

"I said Go on."

Yamato looked up and swallowed nervously, "Well, the next second, my hand felt like it was being burned, and even after I took it away, it just kept spreading all over. But it's gone now."

Kakashi's eyes narrowed. Things were matching up to the incident with his Sharingan…

"Ahahhahah…the little _kid_ did something to you?" Anko laughed, making it all seem like a joke.

Kakashi didn't bother to quiet her, he had something else to think about. Yamato looked mildly annoyed. 'Didn't I say this was going to happen?'

"Oh, well. Might have been nothing Yamato. I gotta get he kid somewhere to sleep. Ja ne!"

Kakashi picked up the slumbering blonde and tucked him into a bed in spare room, and returned to his room to ruminate over the new mystery.

* * *

_Naruto's Inner World_

Naruto had come to visit Kyuubi every time he slept now. He decided it was much more fun than just sleeping like a vegetable for the whole night.

'Kyuubi. Did you say you had something to tell me from before when we were with the Wolf guy?'

**Yeah, come here Kit.** **I want you to focus chakra into your eyes and say this: "Sharingan."**

'Eh? Ok…SHARINGAN!' He opened his eyes. When he looked at Kyuubi, all of the fox's movements seemed to be clearer and easier to follow.

**Kit, look at your reflection in the water. **

'WHAT HAPPENED?!? Why are my eyes red? Help Kyuubi!'

**Don't worry, it's normal, well not normal for a non-Uchiha, but it's alright Kit. I think somehow when you touched the guy's hand from before, you sort of copied his ability. I bet that was Hatake Kakashi. He fits the description from my records perfectly: non-Uchiha, silver hair, one Sharingan.** **Yup, only thing I don't understand is why _you_ have it now.**

Naruto was just as confused with his new ability. 'Something happened when the other guy touched my hair too.'

**Hmm…he was the one with the dog mask, right? Yamato… seems familiar. OH MY GOSH!!! Kit, I think I've figured it out… I gotta try something. Mind if I wake you up and use your body for a few seconds?**

'Anything you say, Kyuubi.'

* * *

Naruto/Kyuubi blinked.

"**Alrighty then, Naruto watch this closely."**

Kyuubi started pumping out chakra from each hand, some molded for Earth-type in the right and some for Water-type in the left. He tried mixing them together. Usually, it would just become a mess, but when he was using Naruto's hands, it became a little ball of wood! It all happened in a matter of seconds.

Just when Kyuubi was about to experiment a little bit more, he felt his control slipping and he was sucked back into Naruto's mind.

'Sorry Kyuubi. I can't really let you out for more than 10 seconds. That seal makes it really hard.'

**It's ok, Kit. Thanks. I think that somehow, you're able to use other's Kekkai Genkai for some reason after you had physical contact with them. Yamato is the only one who has the first's DNA, so he's the only one who can use Mokuton, but now, when I look at your DNA structure, your body has it restructured to be able to accommodate the Sharingan _and_ the Mokuton. INCREDIBLE!**

'Huh?' Naruto was a bit confused. He still was a 2 year old, after all.

**Never mind, Kit. I'll just teach you how to use them. Ready?**

For the next hours that Naruto's body was sleeping, he trained in his mind with Kyuubi…

* * *

The next day, Naruto opened his eyes to see a funny man chewing on a senbon at his door. "Who are you?" Apparently, Naruto couldn't remember some of the people from yesterday.

"I'm Genma, remember? I'm on Kakashi—wait, you know don't know his name, right? The guy with the wolf mask, him, I'm on his team."

By now, Naruto was wide awake. "Oh, Wolf dude-san! Can I see him?" Kyuubi had told him to keep everything he had learned last night to himself, just in case.

Genma practically choked on his senbon. "Wolf dude-san?!? AHAHHAHHA—"

His senbon had been yanked out of his mouth and was being held with the pointy end ready to be jabbed into his neck. "Eeep."

"I said not to call me that, right, short stuff?" Kakashi growled.

Naruto's eyes were huge, big as dinner plates as he couldn't quite believe that "Wolf dude-san" had moved that quickly. "Eeep." He said, sounding just as scared as Genma.

Then, suddenly, Kakashi began to laugh, realizing how ridiculous the situation was. "AHAAHAHAH….alright, just call me Kakashi. Letting you know my real name is better than … AHHAHAH..."

Naruto and Genma looked bemused, but Naruto quickly recovered. "HAI! Kakashi-san!"

This got another snicker from Genma, who was silenced by slight jab with the senbon that managed to hurt badly, but somehow didn't draw blood.

"It's ok. Just Kakashi is fine." 'Geez, where does this kid get all that energy from?'

* * *

**A/N: You made it through the first chapter! :D It's a strange place to break, but I couldn't think of a better place...if anyone has any good chapter titles, feel free to suggest them. "Chapter 1" is a little bland I must admit...**


	2. More Kekkei Genkai?

**Disclaimer: Nope, I still don't own Naruto.**

OK, just re-reading by myself, I've noticed some really strange things with age in the last chapter. Although Naruto is two...he can speak and think clearer than most 1st graders...I think my explanation is that he's been influenced by Kyuubi inside which has sped up his mental maturation.

Thank you to backupacc for the new title for Chapter 1!

Here's chapter 2! (I obviously need suggestions for a more exciting chapter title).

* * *

_5 days later_

'Eh? Which one should I pick? Kyuubi?'

**The red one with the white stripe... QUICK! Someone's coming!**

Naruto grabbed for the scroll, but only managed to tear off a section by accident. He managed to knock off a whole rack of scrolls in the process which earned him a high-speed chase out of the ANBU library.

'Yikes! Kyuubi, was that a good idea? It wasn't mine for once'

"NARUTO!!!!!!!!!"

**Ah…might be better to keep running right now instead.**

Naruto's antics had spread throughout the complex. In less than 24 hours, he had pulled 30 different pranks on the ANBU. It wasn't his fault that he was bored. Everyone was so _boring_. Kakashi's team had gone on a mission, and they had left him at the HQ. They figured that just being inside would let the other ANBU to collectively take care of him. Unfortunately, the ones who would, couldn't and the ones who could, wouldn't. That's why Naruto had started his reign of terror.

Dye on the showerheads, so whoever used them turned funny colors, paint bomb in the room some ANBU used for unwinding, using a marker to draw mustaches on ANBU masks (at least it was wet-erase), etc…

Needless to say, many of the ANBU members were seriously annoyed at Naruto, fewer were able to laugh at the cleverness of some of the pranks, and fewest were the ones who actually realized that when pulling off the pranks, Naruto wasn't just doing it for a prank's sake; he was up to something. Only Naruto knew what was going on behind the distractions, though.

Whenever he had pulled a prank, he had lost his pursuers and snuck into the library and used the time the ANBU had spent undoing the prank or trying to track him down to read scrolls on various techniques, usually the ones that Kyuubi could not teach him.

Additionally, there were times when he found the armory and been able to get inside to take kunai and shuriken to practice with. He always took the invaluable things, so people were not too suspicious and returned them when he was done.

It was on one of his trips to the library when they finally found him trying to take a seal scroll out to read.

"GET BACK HERE!!! I'M GOING TO MAKE YOU CLEAN OUT ALL THE COBWEBS IN THE LAUNDERY ROOM!!!"

'Oh, they finally found _that _one, Kyuubi.' Naruto sniggered, that one had taken him a while.

Suddenly, a group of his pursuers appeared in front of him. He tried spinning around to go the other way, but found another group of angry ANBU with spider webs in their hair.

**Quick, I've got an idea! Get in here now, make it look like you fainted.**

'But, what about the piece of the scroll?'

**We'll worry about that later.**

Suddenly, Naruto's eyes glazed over and he collapsed on the floor. Immediately, the surrounding ANBU looked concerned.

"Naruto? We're not that mad. Are you ok? Naruto? Naruto? Uh oh…he's out cold." A kunoichi stood up after looking at Naruto.

The ANBU had no idea what to do. After all, they were trained assassins, not some babysitters for hyperactive blonde two year olds. They just filed out of the hallway, leaving one green haired, spider web covered kunoichi to pick up Naruto and bring him to his room. She stayed there and looked at Naruto. 'My, he's a troublemaker, but it must be lonely, one kid among a bunch of us assassins all day.' She sat next to his bed, waiting for him to wake up.

* * *

_Naruto's Inner World_

Naruto worked hard on trying to perform the technique he had found on the scrap that he had by accidentally ripped off from the scroll in the library.

'This is hard Kyuubi.'

**I know. I'm sorry Naruto, seals aren't really my strong point. I can't really help you there, but I really think that you need that one. Your body's chemicals are acting up. I don't know what it is this time, but they're gathering near your back. If any physicals changes happen, we need you to be able to hide them.**

'Ok Kyuubi. I'll try my best.' Sighed Naruto. He had been at it for at least an hour already. He took a break, and suddenly realized. 'KYUUBI!'

**What? Is something wrong?**

'I just realized, the scrap of the scroll. It came in with me! I never brought anything in here with me before!'

**Oh, my! I didn't notice that either! Wow! This is awesome! I think this is going to help us a lot. Do you think that you can bring anything else in?**

'I'll try later.'

**Ok, get back to trying that technique.**

Naruto went at it for another hour before finally mastering the seal.

'I think I need to go back out now, Kyuubi. I'll have been out for an hour now.'

Time passed differently inside Naruto's mind. Usually it passed half as slowly as the outside world, so Naruto managed to do things twice as fast when he was training with Kyuubi inside his mind. The only problem was that his physical body wouldn't get any stronger if he tried to get a work out in his mind. He could usually study different techniques though, and when he woke up, he could usually still do them.

* * *

The green-haired kunoichi had been sitting next to Naruto for an hour, and was wondering if he was just asleep or if she should get medical help for him. That is, until Naruto cracked open his eyes, and said "I'm really sorry. I'll clean up the cobwebs now."

"What? Oh, no, don't worry about that. We cleaned that up. I must admit, that must have been pretty hard to set up." The kunoichi gave him a smile, remembering that when she was a kid, she loved pranks too. "We were a bit worried because you had passed out when we were chasing you."

Naruto gave her a sheepish smile. "Sorry, I dunno what happened."

"Hmm…I think we should give you a check-up, make sure you're really alright."

Once the medic told him that he was perfectly alright, Naruto was released back to his room, and told just to stay out of trouble.

All was not well, sadly, as many of the ANBU members were driven over the edge by Naruto's nonstop antics. The next day…

* * *

_Hokage's Office_

"Naruto! How nice to see you." The Hokage smiled at Naruto who was sulking opposite to him.

Naruto handed him an envelope the ANBU had given him.

The Hokage didn't seem particularly surprised when he read that Naruto was creating such a ruckus at the headquarters. What he was surprised at was the complexity of the pranks and escape techniques that Naruto had devised. He hid his surprise and decided that it probably wasn't the best thing for Naruto stay at the ANBU hq anymore.

"Naruto, I think that you should move into an apartment again. There's a little place on the outskirts of town that's actually pretty close to ANBU, but not too close. It's near a lake. I think you'll like it."

Naruto just accepted his fate passively and walked out of the office with a key to his new home. In actuality, Naruto felt like jumping up and down with glee. He would have his own place! The orphanages and the ANBU hq, although filled with people were just as lonely as living on his own. At least now, he could train without hiding!

* * *

_2 weeks later_

Naruto collapsed on his bed. It had taken a lot out of him to carry 30 different scrolls from the library to his home and keep up a mild genjutsu to avoid suspicion. He had pretended to be much older. He had just turned 3 years old. He would've gotten pretty funny stares if a 3 year old was checking out scrolls on chunnin level techniques.

'Whew! Kyuubi, that took a while!'

**Great, let's get started, and can you bring some of that noodle stuff with you?** Surprisingly, Kyuubi had turned out to be just as much of a ramen lover as Naruto. He had a whole closet full of instant ramen. The only problem was the sheer size of Kyuubi. Naruto had to give him at least 20 to make enough for a few tiny mouthfuls.

Suddenly, Naruto collapsed on the floor, hands and knees trying to push himself up again, but wave after wave of pain came crashing over him, stemming from two points on his back. The searing pain was incredibly overwhelming, even for Naruto's high pain threshold (due to the many brutal attacks from the villagers).

**KIT! Oh my gosh, are you alright?!? I don't know what's happening. All this chakra is being sucked towards the area near your shoulder blades. Kit? Kit? KIT?**

Naruto passed out from the incredible amount of pain.

* * *

Naruto woke up. 'Why do I feel wet?' He looked around. There were pools of blood around him on both sides. It was fairly fresh. Naruto slowly pushed himself up. He felt so heavy, so tired, so sleepy.

Naruto slipped into darkness again.

* * *

The next time Naruto woke again, all the blood was dried, and he was able to stand up steadily this time. He looked at the mess on the floor, looked at the blood that had dripped onto his arms. He had no idea what had happened.

He checked his legs, his feet, his toes, his arms, his hands, his fingers, his head, his back, his wings, his—wait…wings? WINGS?!?!? Naruto dashed into his bathroom. Sure enough, huge tawny wings were attached to his back. He tried to move them. They wiggled.

Naruto was so shocked he almost passed out, but Kyuubi intervened.

**Kit? This is so strange. **

'Kyuubi? Why do I have them?'

**I have absolutely no idea. They're pretty though, aren't they?**

'Yeah, I wonder if I can fly…'

**I wouldn't try that just yet…your body still hasn't fully adjusted to them. I think I sort of know what they're from now, though. Might be another kekkai genkai. I can't think of anything else it can be. **

'WOW! Another one! Cool!' Naruto jumped up and down excitedly. "Whoops," he knocked over bottles of shampoo, etc. "I guess I should go to a bigger space."

Naruto walked to his living room and tried a few hesitant flaps. He lifted off the floor a few inches. "Wow, this is awesome Kyuubi!" The only problem was that each flap created a gust of wind that wrought destruction on Naruto's apartment. "I need a bigger place, but if I go outside, someone might see me. Any ideas Kyuubi?"

**I'll help cast a genjutsu. You'll just be a little bird. Only problem is that we still need to keep away from people just in case they by accidentally bump into the part of you that "isn't there" because of the illusion.**

**

* * *

  
**

_1 month later_

Naruto had managed to master his wings due to increased practice and study of scrolls on birds and had also managed to learn more genjutsus to help cover up his practice outdoors.

**Good thing I told you to learn this, eh Naruto?** Kyuubi remarked as Naruto once again used the 5-element seal to retract his wings and look normal enough to walk outside without a genjutsu.

'Yeah, let's go buy ramen!' Naruto had also taken to wearing low-backed shirts with a jacket on top so he could extend his wings without breaking his clothes every time he wanted to fly.

* * *

_1 year later_

Naruto once again stood in the Hokage's office, this time to ask him for a favor.

"Hokage-jii, can you enroll me in the academy? I wanna learn how to be a ninja!"

"Umm…Naruto, you're only 4 years old. I think we can wait a little l—"

Suddenly a huge fountain of blood spurted from the Hokage's nose as an attractive, naked blonde girl stood in front of him.

"Hokage-sama, could you pleeease enroll me in the academy?"

"Su-sure." Said the Hokage before almost passing out from major blood loss through the nostrils.

When he came to again, Naruto was there looking a tad bit concerned. "Are you okay Old man? I didn't know that you were that much of a pervert or that you would react so strongly to my Orioke no Jutsu." He gave him a giant Naruto grin™.

"I'm-I'm not a pervert." The Hokage said weakly as Naruto hopped out of the room.

"Don't worry Old Man, I won't tell anyone if you enroll me at the academy!"

The Hokage shook his head, 'There goes my reputation…' and set about fixing all the paperwork that he had gotten blood on and also to enroll Naruto in a class at the academy.

* * *

_Back at Naruto's home_

Naruto whistled a happy tune as he returned from a trip from the library.

'Kyuubi-nii, is it just me, or is there a presence _trying_ to cover up its chakra signature in there?'

**Yup, your chakra detection skills have gotten way better, Kit. Good job. Now hide the scrolls and act surprised when you walk in.**

Naruto hastily shoved the scrolls in a compartment under a loose floorboard on the porch., straightened up, opened the door, and gave out a genuine "Eeep" of surprise. Because, standing inside near his window was…

"WOLF DUDE-SAN!?!? What are you doing here?"

Kakashi shook his head, "Is that all the welcome I get for checking on you here? I haven't seen you in a while."

Naruto was a little bemused at why an ANBU was in his home, and just said, "Eh?"

"Well, I was just wondering how you were doing by yourself, but I guess it's alright because of _that_." Kakashi pointed to the closet full of instant ramen from hoarded allowance from the Hokage. Kakashi hadn't known that Naruto was _that_ much of a ramen fanatic.

"Hehehe…" Naruto was still confused about why Kakashi was there.

"Well, gotta go, Ja ne!" Kakashi hopped out of the window.

This just left a stunned Naruto standing by his still open door.

'What was that all about Kyuubi-nii?'

**No idea, let's get cracking on those scrolls then.**

Naruto was already up to Jounin-level scrolls and techniques now, and could even perform advanced demonic genjutsus and all different types of ninjutsus. It was all good, plus breaks for flying were so fun! He was still a four-year old after all.

* * *

"Suiton: Soushousuiryuudan no Jutsu!" **(A/N: My gosh...the younger me mangled Japanese words rather badly...I'll definitely fix this kind of mis-use in my rewrite. Please bear with it for now.) **Naruto created two huge dragons out of water on the lake. They hit and completely destroyed the target he had set up. He proceeded to practice the technique (with all of its 60 handseals) four times. This was an impressive feat considering most four year olds usually didn't even _know_ what chakra was.

The blonde continued to practice with different elemental type techniques until he could barely move, let alone walk.

**Come on. Get up, Kit. You can do it. Try to fly to the door. You have to get more exercise.**

Naruto groaned. "Kyuubi-nii. I already do 500 sit-ups and 500 push-ups everyday. Not to mention all the kicking and punching I practice on the logs. Don't I have an excuse to be tired?'

**No.**

The blonde sighed and spread his by now stiff wings and swooped back to his house.

His training continued in this fashion for most of the week, until one day, Naruto was struck by a sudden flash of inspiration. 'Kyuubi, why couldn't we make up our own set of seals? Our opponents would have no idea what we were doing! Hey, we could even try to do different seals at the same time with one-handed seals.'

Even Kyuubi was a bit awed at Naruto's new idea. He had already proven to be very innovative, tweaking little things in jutsus he had learned to make them double or even sometimes ten-fold as strong. This new idea would give them a huge edge in any potential battles.

**This might be tricky. Get started, then, we don't have any time to waste!**

Naruto slaved over his new system. It was a lot harder than he originally thought, and more than once, his chakra had almost blown up in his face, and Naruto's singed air and scratched hands were testament to the dangers of his experimenting.

'I'M DONE!!!!!' Naruto had created a whole new set of hand seals to focus chakra in less than a month. It was an impressive feat, even Kyuubi had to admit.

**Hmm, maybe, you **_**do**_** have a bit of potential, Kit.**

'Aww, Kyuubi-nii, why can't you just say that it's go—" Naruto collapsed on the floor, all his chakra exhausted. 'Whew, Kyuubi, I'm really tired. I'm gonna go to sleep.' And without further ado, Naruto was sound asleep by the shore of the lake.

* * *

'Kyuubi-nii, why do I feel like there's something I'm forgetting.' Naruto sat up and rubbed his eyes.

**You are.**

'Just tell me.'

**Fine. It's the first day of Academy today.**

'WHAT?!?! What times is it?'

**3 in the morning.**

'Oh.'

**Exactly. Just do your morning routine and then go to school.**

Naruto started on his 500 sit-ups and push-ups, ate breakfast (beef ramen), took a shower, and got changed for school. All this was before it turned 4 o'clock.

* * *

_At the Academy_

"Is anyone here?" Naruto was confused. Didn't everybody wake up as early as he did? Oh, well. He knew where his classroom was, so he just popped in (after picking some locks) and sat down in a seat. "I guess I'll just wait."

He opened a scroll and began reading the Academy curriculum. 'Wow. This is easy, Kyuubi. I don't wanna learn this. I'd rather learn kenjutsu. I need some help there.'

3 hours passed. The teacher walked in with bleary eyes and a huge cup of coffee. She didn't notice Naruto until he coughed discreetly.

"Hey, kid. How did you sneak in here? It's not a playground. I'll let you out before anyone notices."

"But, I'm in your class. I AM UZUMAKI NARUTO!!!"

The teacher groaned and covered her ears. "Shhh! Oh, yeah, you're on my list. Yeah, why are you here so early?"

"I thought school started at 4:30."

"You've been here since then?!? Alright, it's ok, but school starts at 8:00. Since you're new, I'll just start a pre-assessment with you. My name is Uchiha Chikako."

"HAI!"

"Ahhh…. So loud. Alright get started, tell me what you know about the history of Konoha."

"Eh…Chikako-sensei, I don't really know anything about that kind of stuff, but can you test me on other things. I can learn history from you, but I know other things." Naruto gave her one of his giant sunny smiles.

_**She's gonna crack. Nobody can stand against that grin.**_ Kyuubi knew from personal experience.

Sure enough, "Aww, ok. How about you show me if you can make a bunshin."

"Hai!" He had had an extremely difficult time in trying to control his chakra to make something so easy, but Kyuubi had made him practice until his chakra control was so good, that he could actually make perfect ones.

It seemed like Naruto hadn't moved, so Chikako-sensei said, "Go on, aren't you going to show me?" She heard a voice behind her. "But, Chikako-sensei, I did!" Naruto tapped her hand (because he was too short to reach her shoulder). "I just moved over here to see if you could tell it wasn't me!"

Chikako was impressed. He could move that fast? 'Impressive indeed.' She put Naruto through a series of test and he amazed her every time.

'Should I tell her?'

**I guess so, she's an Uchiha. Might be useful, and she probably has a right to know.**

"Uh…Chikako-sensei. I have something to tell you. I didn't even tell the Hokage. Can you keep my secret?" Another grin.

"Ok. What is it?" Chikako didn't think a mere four year old, no matter how talented he seemed to be at the moment, could hold any really surprising secrets.

"Swear you won't tell anyone?"

She was taken back a bit by the serious tone of his voice, and only hesitated for amoment. "Yes, I swear on my honor as a kunoichi, I will not tell anyone."

"Ok, then. Well, it's easier to show you." Naruto closed his eyes, activated his Sharingan, and looked up at Chikako.

She gasped. "Oh my. I wasn't expecting that!" She was extremely shocked. Only one person outside of the Uchiha clan had the Sharingan, and he had severe physical limits to using it. Hatake Kakashi only had one and it could not be deactivated, plus it drained a lot more chakra than when it was in an Uchiha user, and yet, here this little tiny blonde boy could activate and deactivate the kekkai genkai without keeling over from chakra loss. He was much more impressive than she had originally thought.

"Will you teach me how to use this?" And apparently much more clever than she had thought before. "Naruto, I'm going to say something important. I might need to tell a few people about your…special ability, but I promise not to tell anyone who will hurt you. I will teach you, but promise me you won't tell anyone else in my clan?"

"HAI!" Chikako-sensei groaned. Naruto was still a 4 year old at heart.

Students began filing in. Some people shied away from Naruto as their parents had done, some were confused on why someone so young was in their class, but a few were polite to Naruto. Naruto tried not to show off, since he as clearly near the top of the class, and kept himself unworthy of notice to prevent suspicions from flying around.

Time passed, and Chikako-sensei taught him about how to master the Sharingan. They had become close, as Chikako was like a mother he had never had.

* * *

A/N: And there we have it, Chapter 2! Again, chapter title suggestions are welcomed, and I'll have Chapter three coming right up!


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: Naruto isn't mine.**

Hi there, readers! After receiving a rather...shall we say enlightening review, I've decided to strengthen my "warning." If you've made it this far, I'm pretty sure you see the ridiculousness. And I'd like to point out that this story is categorized under "Adventure" and "Humor." Emphasis on the "Humor" because although I did write this a long long time ago with the intention of it being serious, I have conceded that yes, it IS implausible, bad writing, and rather stupid. But, it still has some funny points. And that's why I'm making a re-write...which is only really rather loosely based on this. I'm just posting this for those who think ridiculousness is entertaining. (I'm one of them).

And it's only going to get more ridiculous. Don't say I didn't warn you.

On with the show!

* * *

_One night after Naruto trained with Chikako-sensei_

'I'm so tired, Kyuubi.'

**Get up Kit. No excuses. We're going to train some more. Anyway, I was wondering if it was time to give you a summons scroll…**

'Eh?! Ooo!' Naruto hopped up as fast as he could with his battered body. Chikako-sensei was really nice, but she sure was a task-driver when it came to training.

**Ok, Kit. Get in here. **

**

* * *

  
**

_Naruto's Inner World_

Kyuubi no Kitsune beckoned Naruto to come into his cage, and Naruto happily skipped on top of the water into Kyuubi's abode.

**Kit, this is a summoning scroll. I only have one that I keep inside of me. It is to summon foxes to your aid. I think it might not be the best idea because it would blow your cover if you used it when other people were around, but let's try it first. **

Kyuubi spat up a relatively small scroll and pushed it toward Naruto. **Sign your name with blood from your hand.**

Naruto took out a kunai and pricked his index finger. He signed his name on the ancient scroll that was somehow not wet after being in Kyuubi's stomach.

'Ok. Now what do I do, Kyuubi?'

**The seals are Tora, Tatsu, Mi. **(Tiger, Dragon, Snake) **Say "Kitsune Kuchiyose no Jutsu."**

'Tora, Tatsu, Mi. Kitsune Kuchiyose no Jutsu!' A normal-sized fox appeared in front of him. Nothing was out of the ordinary, except for the fact that the fox was pure yellow with red flame like patterns dappling its fur.

It said, "Greetings, Naruto-sama. I bring you the legendary blade, _Flamefang_." The fox bowed and proffered the blade up to Naruto. Naruto looked at him with wide blue eyes and took the katana in his shaking hands.

**What is the meaning of this Sen? Is this the council's doing?**

"Yes, Kyuubi-sama. We have decided that Naruto-sama should be the next welder of the legendary sword of the flame."

**Than I will consent as Lord of the Foxes. **

Sen excused himself and Naruto kept staring at the blade. Flamefang seemed to be calling to him with its warmth. The sheath was of the darkest black, but the carving in it seemed to be coursing with a red light, flickering like a flame.

Naruto reverently drew the katana from its sheath. It made no noise and slid out very smoothly. Etched on the blade were the outlines of foxes dancing in between flames. The cross guard was in the shape of a flaming star. The wrapping of the hilt was blood red. He held out the beautiful blade in his ready position. It was perfectly balanced. "Wow" was the only word to describe it.

Kyuubi looked at the blade with wide eyes. He himself had only seen the blade once or twice in his life. It was even more beautiful than any description he had heard of it. Sen, the guardian of the sword, was the only one who saw it on a day-to-day basis.

**Kit, you should be honored. That sword has only been given to a human only once before. **

'Yeah, Kyuubi-nii. I still can't quite believe I got it. It's so pretty!' Naruto unconsciously channeled some of his chakra into the katana. Instantly, the carvings lit up a bright cerulean (the color of Naruto's chakra) and the edges seemed even more deadly than before. Naruto gasped. 'WOW! Kyuubi-nii, I really need someone to teach me more kenjutsu!'

**Yes. But, since we can't really do anything about that right now, why don't we keep on the track we were originally on. Try summoning something again.**

Naruto practiced summoning foxes who were all very cooperative and understanding, given that they had all heard the word that a human had been given The Sword again.

'Whew. Kyuubi-niisan, I'm all tired. Can I take a break?' Without further ado, Naruto flopped down on the top of the water and slipped into a meditative trance.

* * *

_Naruto's Innermost Mind_

Naruto was floating somewhere. All around him was a soft, whitish-yellowish light. He just floated around on a current of nothing.

Suddenly, he noticed little gaps in the light. He floated toward one of them and peeked inside. He almost gasped in shock. There was a different _world_ in there! It was all inhabited by wolves. Beautiful, graceful wolves. Loping around the landscape.

Naruto kept exploring different cracks and found that any creature he could think of was there! It was amazing!

He found that one crack drew him in more than any of the other ones. He peeked inside and found that it was that of the birds. They seemed so friendly! Naruto shook his wings free from their folded position on his back and entered the gap. Immediately, all the birds froze and looked at him curiously until one, humongous bird headed toward him.

Its presence made Naruto feel that this was someone he had to respect. He bowed to the huge hawk.

_**It is alright, Fledgling. We have been expecting you.**_

All of a sudden, all of the birds were around Naruto and welcoming him and introducing themselves. Somehow, Naruto could remember the thousands of names. The last one to introduce herself was the gigantic hawk from before.

_**I have no name, but I am the overlord of the birds. You are a winged one and so we accept you into our midst. I will give you a contract to let you summon us. This age-old contract has never been signed before. Only the minor ones which may only summon a few of us have been every offered to humans, but you, you are special little fledgling. We feel it in you. You may sign this. **_

Naruto once again pricked his finger to sign his name into the scroll. Once he was done, he felt the outer world calling him, so he bid farewell to the birds, and returned to the cage of Kyuubi.

* * *

_Naruto's Inner World_

'Kyuubi! I signed a contract with the birds! They were so nice! I met a really BIG nice one. She was huge! As big as you!'

**Aye, she's the queen of the birds. You are a lucky one, Kit. You've received the Flamefang and a contract with the birds in one day. Go back to the outside world, now. I think it's morning now. Have fun, Kit.**

**

* * *

  
**

_Outside_

Naruto woke up in his bed and found that he was clutching something tightly in his hands. He looked over and saw the beautiful katana.

'Oh. I should keep this somewhere nice and safe.' That place was none other than a tattoo he had applied onto his own wrist (with some help from Kyuubi) that could hold a good many things, like a sealing scroll. The tattoo disappeared whenever it wasn't needed.

Naruto stepped outside to go for the day's lessons at the Academy.

* * *

_After School_

Naruto walked home to get a start on a new pile of scrolls he had chosen. Whistling happily, he decided to stop by Chikako-sensei's place with some apples later. She had said that the reason why she had become a teacher was because one day, she was walking along to mull over the idea when an apple fell and smacked her on the head. There were no apple trees in sight, nor was there anyone nearby who could have chucked it at her head. She had taken it as a sign that becoming a teacher would be a _good thing_. The day Naruto had asked for her help, she had been walking home, and an apple had bonked her on the head yet again. She decided that apples were very lucky things and therefore her favorite fruit.

Naruto started to get a bad feeling when he walked around to the Uchiha compound. He quickened his pace. The feeling got worse. He cranked up his speed a notch more. By the time he got to the gates, he was sprinting at full speed and feeling extremely nauseous from his gut feeling.

"No…No NO!NO!NO!" There before his eyes was the scene of horrible brutality. Bodies were strewn around the place, all murdered.

He immediately spotted his sensei's body. It was horribly mangled with many terrible wounds. It was obvious that she had put up a fight, and been injured horribly in the process. "Sen—sensei…" Naruto couldn't hold back the tears streaming down his face.

Amazingly, she had enough drops of life force and enough determination to crack open her eyelids one last time to say good bye to her beloved little student. "Na—Naruto…don't be sad. I'm going to a be—better place now. I lo—" Her sentence was cut off and her eyes were starting to dim slowly.

"NO! Kaa-san, don't leave me! I need you!"

Chikako's lips curled upwards in a weak smile. Her little student still managed to impress her every time. 'Kaa-san…that's nice…' she thought and faded away to the next world.

When Naruto had finished crying, which was surprisingly short, as he was now filled with feelings of revenge for whoever had done this to his "kaa-san." He picked up her body and put it on top of a bench in a sunlit corner. She still looked so kind…

Naruto started looking in the house for whoever had done this, but he stopped as he peeked into a doorway and found a boy, around his age who was just sitting numbly in the middle of the room with two people murdered around him. Naruto assumed they were his parents. He heard the boy whisper, 'Nii-san, Itachi, how could you, _YOU_, do this?' This seemed too much for him and the dark-haired boy burst into silent tears, facing the horrible fact that now, he was on his own, nobody that would be there for him.

Naruto felt his feelings of vengeance get stronger. No one, NO ONE, should go through what had happened to him, being all alone was too painful. Naruto made a vow with himself that he would find whoever had done this and make them pay…once he was strong enough, he realized. He knew he was still much too weak to even stand a chance against the monster who had done this. But, he HAD to do it. That poor kid in the other room couldn't be forced to kill his own _brother_. Naruto knew he had to get stronger. For Sensei—no, kaa-san. For the dark-haired kid. He was going to get stronger.

* * *

_At the Hokage's office_

"Hello, Naruto. Nice day, right?" Hokage smiled at Naruto, but noticed that he had a stony expression. He decided that such a serious, careworn face should not belong on a 4-year-old-going-on-5.

"Naruto, what's wrong? What can I do for you?"

Naruto almost wanted to scream "HELP ME AVENGE KAA-SAN!!!" but he knew that She wouldn't have approved of _that_ mind-set. He wasn't doing this to get back at this Itachi, this weasel, anymore. He was going to do it to do it for the kid. He didn't have to bear all that pain. Instead, Naruto calmly said, "I want to be made an ANBU."

The Hokage seemed a little taken back, seeing a four-year-old making a request like that in such a serious tone.

"Naruto, you know that ANBU is for the elite. You haven't even graduated from the academy, yet!"

"I know jii-san, but can academy students do this?" Naruto was suddenly behind the Hokage, holding a kunai to his throat when he said the last part of the sentence.

Naruto returned back to where he was a second ago. The Hokage was a little shaken. He could've definitely gotten out of that tricky situation, but most others, even a few Jounins, wouldn't have been able to escape before getting their throats slit. The Hokage had always thought of Naruto as the little blonde hyper-active kid who was addicted to ramen, not a cold, ruthless genius.

He made up his mind. "Yes, I will make you an ANBU. But on a condition. You will seal that cold personality into the mask I give you. You'll just be normal Naruto without it on. You're still a four year old, and your birthday is next week! Be a kid, Naruto. I don't want you heading down the same path as It—I mean some others."

Naruto had noticed the little slip and had already sealed away the information away in his brain. The more information on the target, the better.

"HAI! OJII-SAN!" The Hokage smiled. Konoha had just gained a new lethal weapon, but kept its sunny little blonde son.

* * *

He got his mask by a silent delivery at midnight, plus his new uniform.

Kitsune smiled. Things were going to get fun from here.

* * *

_Somewhere in the Woods_

"I'm glad you all made it here. We have a new member, Kitsune."

Black-clad figures turned to inspect their newest team member.

Kitsune had on the regular black suit with the arm and shin guards. The only difference was that he wore a very thin vest over the top half and the chest armor did not extend to the back. This was to cover up the low-cut back that Naruto had ordered so he could extend his wings without breaking a suit every time. He had the Flamefang under a genjutsu and strapped to his back in such a way that it would not interfere if he had to use his wings. Two kodachi were strapped to his side, and a small tanto was concealed near the bottom of his back. Not to mention all the weapons he had in his seal…

A fox mask with jagged red markings looked back at them impassively. "I'm sorry I don't want you to know my true name for security reasons, but you can call me Kioshi." Another thing that was different was that Naruto had used a henge on various parts of his appearance, so now he was a couple feet taller and his hair was a black shock instead of his usual blonde.

The group nodded. They all respected his decision.

"I'm Hebi, or Anko." Said a snake-masked purple-haired kunoichi.

"I'm Inu, or Yamoto. I'm your team captain." Said a familiar dog-masked figure.

Kitsune acknowledged each with a nod.

"Alright, then, let's get on our first mission. It's a low S-rank for our rookie."

They disappeared into the trees. The mission was to retrieve a forbidden scroll from the village of the hidden Cloud. It was a risky matter as the Hidden Village of the Country of Lightning was not on the best terms with that of the Fire Country. It was a pretty straight-forward mission.

Kitsune stayed in their triangular formation, but sent kage bunshins ahead to scout. He cast a genjutsu around them that made the group seem quite a few feet to the left of where they actually were. It would be a good thing to be extra cautious in the event of an ambush.

Suddenly, he felt his kage bunshins disperse. He tensed slightly. Hebi noticed and using sign language, asked him "What's wrong?"

He replied, making motions quickly. "Force of Cloud nin ahead, not sure of quantity."

They alerted Yamoto, and he told them not to act unless they were going to be attacked. He didn't want any unnecessary conflicts.

All of a sudden, a kunai was thrown into the group, where Hebi appeared to be in the genjutsu Kitsune had cast. Immediately, he grabbed Hebi and Inu and tossed them back. They were startled, but immediately realized that Kitsune was saving them from the danger of an explosive tag attached to the kunai. Bits of wood and mud were thrown into the air from the explosion. Kitsune was nowhere to be seen.

Hebi and Inu fell into defensive stances. Something heavy fell from a tree and dropped like a sack. Several others plummeted to the forest floor. They watched on, slightly amazed at the speed at which Kitsune had dispatched the opposing ninjas.

"They're only unconscious, they'll think they just fell asleep." Kitsune just strolled off again toward the direction they had been heading in before.

Now, Hebi and Inu, were slightly more baffled at the nonchalance the rookie had shown after dispatching the enemy nin.

"We don't have all day, you know. I'd rather just get this mission over sooner than later." Called Kitsune from ahead.

Hebi and Inu looked at each other than leapt after the rookie.

The mission continued smoothly without a hitch, and the team returned to Konoha in record time. Kitsune offered to hand in the mission report, and Anko and Yamoto went home, feeling like they had just come back from a short drill rather than the S-mission it actually was.

Kitsune slipped into the Hokage's office. He noticed a group of Jounins there and was just about to head back outside to wait before the Hokage motioned him forward.

"What happened to the mission?" The Hokage knew that in the time it had taken for the team to come back, either something had gone drastically wrong and they had been forced to retreat or well…there really wasn't any other possibility.

Kitsune dumped the hefty scroll onto the Hokage's desk. The Hokage's eyes widened. The appearance and unconcerned attitude of Kitsune made him think that it looked like the group had just waltzed to the village, picked up the scroll and waltzed back out.

"It-It's not possible! You only left yesterday night!" Some perceptive Jounin noticed the Hidden Cloud symbol on the scroll and were just as shocked as the Hokage. Traveling to enemy territory, retrieving a forbidden scroll and coming back unscathed in a day was unheard of!

The Hokage quickly gained his composure and dismissed Kitsune. The room was in an uproar as soon as the ANBU left. Everybody wanted to know just who_ that_ was. It took the Hokage a while to reinstate order and continue the meeting, but his thoughts were still on a certain fox-masked ANBU while the meeting proceeded. 'Konoha has really gained a new lethal weapon, but I'm still worried about what will happen to Sunny Jr.'

Kakashi mulled over the new information. Whoever this person was, he must be really good. It almost made Kakashi want to turn back from resigning and head back to his team to see if this _rookie_ was really that great.

But, no, Kakashi had already spent a lot of time on his decision and he wasn't going to turn back for one new kid. He had had enough time in ANBU already. It was time to quit.

Maybe he could take it a bit more easy now. Learn to socialize with a new group. Teach new genin teams. Maybe see how the kid that called him "Wolf dude-san" was doing. Yeah, he should do that. The kid was living alone anyway. Life was going to be good.

* * *

_Naruto's Home_

Naruto dangled his feet into the lake. Ahh…it was nice being home. That trip was a lot of fun, but he wanted something a bit more challenging next time. Ah, well. Training time was nice too. Naruto got up to stand and meditate on the water to focus his chakra.

* * *

_2 hours later_

Naruto finished meditating and sensed a presence. 'Uh, oh, Kyuubi. We've got company.' Naruto dried himself off, plastered a happy grin on his face and flopped on the grass to pretend that he was just cloud-watching.

'Aww…he's cute. I wonder what he's doing. I have plenty of time to burn. A mandatory vacation? Whoever heard of that? Sheesh…darn Hokage.' Kakashi appeared by Naruto's side in a dramatic appearance with leaves swirling around him.

The blonde pretended to be amazed. "WOW! Can you teach me that? Wait…who are you? Do I know you?" Naruto slipped into happy little kid mode quite easily. It was nice shutting off the Kitsune part of his brain and just playing dumb.

"Maa…you already don't notice me without my mask, eh?"

Naruto gave off a "startled squeak." He jumped up and gave "wolf dude-san" a big hug. "WOLF DUDE-SAN!!! HIIIIII!!!! YOU'RE SO MUCH COOLER THAN I THOUGHT YOU WERE!!!"

Kakashi was surprised. How should he react? What was he supposed to do when a little kid started hugging him and shouting his lungs out?

"Maa…Maa…don't go around telling everyone who I am, got it?" He lowered his voice to a dramatic whisper. "It'll be our little secret, ne?" He saw a happy sparkle in the little kid's eye for feeling so trusted by someone.

"Can you tell me what you want me to call you now?"

"Eh? Just call me what I told you before. Kakashi."

"'kay." Naruto flopped back onto the grass. "Do ya want some ramen? I have double the amount from last time!!!"

Kakashi shuddered. The kid really needed some more variety in his diet if he wanted to grow.

"I'll tell you what. Maybe we can get the fresh version from Ichiraku instead. Haven't seen you in a while, so why don't I treat you?"

"YAYAYAYAY!!!! ICHIRAKU RAMEN ICHIRAKU RAMEN!!!"

Belatedly, Kakashi remembered what had happened last time to his wallet when he had treated the little shrimp. But, it was a little too late to take back the offer now.

* * *

_Later at the Hokage's Office_

"Hello, Kitsune. I just wanted to ask you how you thought the first mission was. Just tell the truth, no need to be humble or anything." The Hokage was still curious about the rookie ANBU's experience.

"Well…if you want the truth, it was a piece of cake." Kitsune still had the same relaxed attitude from before.

The Hokage was impressed. He hadn't expected Kitsune to be this successful, but he was still a bit worried about the little blonde inside.

"Alright, _Naruto_, why don't you take off the mask and tell me about your day?"

"HAI!!!" The Hokage smiled. This was all very amusing how Naruto/Kitsune could change demeanors in a flash.

"Hokage-jii. I graduated today! See! Look at my forehead protector!" Naruto whipped out a shiny new official Konoha forehead protector. "Too bad, I can't wear it yet." Naruto drooped a bit but was his usual cheery self the next second. "Did I do well, Hokage-jii? I tried hard on the mission you know."

"Kitsune did very well, Naruto. From what I saw in the reports from Hebi and Inu, Kitsune knocked out a bunch of A-rank ninjas in a few minutes. I would like to promote you to Jounin. I know you don't have the official requirements, but since the ranks are based on skills, I have decided that you will are more than qualified. I haven't even seen your full skills yet. I know you're very strong, Naruto. Keep doing well!"

Naruto was stunned. Jounin? WOW! "ARIGATOU!!!" He leapt over the desk and gave the Hokage a hug. "Now, I'm closer to becoming Hokage after you!" The Hokage smiled and ruffled Naruto's hair, 'So you are Naruto, in time, I know you will be stronger than I have ever been.'

Naruto had dozed off, and the Hokage brought him home before any harm could befall the adorable little kid.

* * *

**A/N: Forgot to mention, yes, I'm changing this to "Super!Naruto" in the blurb...sorry for the mistake.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.**

Chapter four is here! ... still a boring name. Yeah, I think we need a better title. If you have any ideas for chapter titles for chapters 3 & 4 feel free to suggest them! The start of the canon material is in this chapter.

* * *

**RISE AND SHINE, KIT!**

Naruto groaned. 'What time is it Kyuubi?'

**Uh…10 am?**

'You liar.' Naruto looked at his clock. 'AGHH!!! How could you? Waking me up at 2 in the morning?'

**Sorry, Kit. I just wanted you to go and do your routine before you started training. You know, with Anko, for kenjutsu. She did say she'd teach you anytime, remember?**

'Yeah…alright, I'll do a warm-up before I meet with her.'

His warm-up consisted of holding up an elaborate genjutsu around the area, performing different jutsus, striking logs, and running 4 miles. All at the same time. He was done by 4 am.

'Yatta! Breakfast time!" Naruto went inside to fix his customary meal of ramen.

Anko wasn't joking when she said anytime, but 5 am? Her teammate couldn't be serious. She grabbed her precious katana and went to the meeting spot he had described in his message.

Naruto waited patiently and decided that it probably was a good idea not to use the legendary sword, so he had made his own, which was surprisingly easy for him with the Kyuubi's help and a lot of practice and some handy dandy fire jutsus. It was an excellent sword. The hilt wrapping was the blue of his eyes (suggested by Kyuubi) and the cross guard was a regular rectangle, but with an intricate pattern of feathers and leaves. The blade was surprisingly light and had a very nice balance. All in all, it was a first-rate weapon.

Anko arrived and immediately discovered that her teammates form was terrible. Entirely from-the-book, and predictable.

"Alright. First thing I want you to learn: "from the book" isn't going to work here. You need your own style, which you'll discover after some experience. You need to know your own strengths to exploit and weaknesses to compensate for. Standard isn't going to cut it. Second, I'm a harsh teacher. You don't like it, leave."

Kitsune listened interestedly. He had learned more in her minute of speaking than from all the scrolls he had read on kenjutsu. His response to her last statement was to just stay put and continue his steady gaze at her through his mask.

Anko put Kitsune through his paces, and at the end of the session, he was looking much, much better. Anko was impressed. It usually took a week or two to impress her first statement into her student. Kitsune was different. This was actually going to be productive. 'Yeah! No more incompetent teammates!' cheered Anko on the inside.

Over the next couple of weeks, Kitsune's improvement showed itself clearly from the new way he held his body. His movements were much more graceful and conserving of energy, plus his own style was surprisingly hard to breach. He had even applied what he had learned to wielding his kodachis and was even more deadly with them than with his katanas or ninjatos. Kitsune was satisfied, and after finishing with everything Anko had taught him, his occasional spars with her made his continuous improvement known to her.

* * *

_2 years later_

Naruto bounced along. Kitsune had become extremely successful, and Naruto was fulfilling his role as village idiot and prankster very nicely. He was heading over to the Hokage even now to receive his next mission. 'I wonder what it's going to be this time, Kyuu.'

**Hope it's something more interesting. Last couple were a little boring…**

'Yeah, well I better hurry up, or I'll be late.' Naruto made it the rest of the way in record time and bounced into the famed office. "Hey, Hokage-jii. What's up?"

The Hokage winced at the nickname but had long ago decided that it was best to just ignore it. "I have something interesting for you this time. Well, you might be a tad bit bored, but I need you to attend the academy again. We need someone in there. There's been some suspicious activity coming from one of the staff and we want you to make sure it's taken care of."

Naruto sighed. How troublesome…

The Hokage noticed his reluctance. "Hey, there _is_ something a little more interesting. Look. This is a list of people in the class you'll be a part of."

Naruto skimmed the list and stopped where the Hokage had his finger at: Uchiha Sasuke. "Oh…"

The Hokage smiled. Mission accomplished. There was no way Naruto could deny this mission now. It was a done deal.

And so it was. Naruto was enrolled into the academy for the incoming class.

* * *

_First day of Academy_

Naruto stood with his ridiculous outfit in the crowd waiting to get in. He had noticed a lot of hostile glares from some of the people. A particularly hard "accidental" shove sent him sprawling to the floor. 'Some things never do change, do they, Kyuu?'

**Sorry, Kit.**

'No, no. It's not your fault. Just the darn people's way of thinking.' Naruto was so absorbed in the mini-conversation, he didn't notice someone almost trip over him.

"Aren't you going to get up?" an annoyed voice asked. Naruto looked up into a pair of milky white eyes with no pupils, but didn't respond. "…Well, I might as well help you up, seeing as you're blocking my path. Maybe it was fated to happen." Hyuuga Neji sighed. Things like this were so troublesome, but fate was undeniable, so he stuck out his hand for the blonde to take.

Naruto hesitated but took the proffered hand to pick himself back up. However, when he touched the other student's hand, it felt like a strong electrical shock went through both of their arms. Both felt pain in their eyes, but both pretended that nothing had happened.

Neji didn't want to seem like a spastic weirdo. The younger kid couldn't have been able to do anything, and no one else was around them, so he would just look weird if he grabbed his eyes all of a sudden.

Naruto was thinking along the same lines, but actually knew what was going on. He muttered a hasty "Thank you" and "Sorry" before running off and berating himself for being an idiot. 'Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid. I knew he was a Hyuuga. I should've remembered about the Byakugan. I'm so stupid, stupid…'

**No use repeating yourself over and over again, Kit. It's not your fault, everybody forgets things sometimes. Anyway, he won't know what happened, so it's not too bad. Just get a grip. You'll be fine.**

Naruto took some calming breaths. 'Hey. I should try out what I should do with this after school.' At least, now he had something to look forward after the dreaded boredom of repeating the same lessons he had learned years ago.

* * *

_In the Classroom_

"So, hi. Welcome to the Academy! I will be your group's teacher. I am Umino Iruka."

Naruto liked his new teacher. He seemed nice enough, but of course, he was going to have to play the part of class clown and dope. Whatever… it was actually sort of fun. Nobody knew what the real Naruto could do.

The morning progressed well enough. Naruto couldn't help but keep falling asleep as he had had everything drilled into his head years before. He could probably answer the questions while asleep. Which once he did…

Iruka-sensei saw Naruto and Shikamaru asleep again, so he decided to teach Naruto a lesson in paying attention in class. "Alright class. A little pop quiz for what we learned this morning." The whole class groaned. Iruka passed out the tests, which were quite comprehensive, but easy enough if you had paid attention.

He was a little shocked when he saw Naruto pick up a pencil and start writing answers. His eyes were open, but he was still asleep. 'Wow…interesting guy.' Once he was done, Naruto collapsed back on top of the table and kept sleeping.

Iruka graded the tests while the kids had a lunch break. He came to Naruto's paper and smirked, but it faded as he went down the paper and saw that ALL the answers were correct and also contained extra information he had not taught. 'What the heck? He knew the stuff so well he could answer it _asleep_?' It turned out that Naruto was more interesting than his outside showed.

After Iruka handed back the tests, Naruto's eyes widened. 'Darn. I wasn't careful. I really could answer the questions asleep. This is bad…I don't look like a complete utter dope anymore.'

He noticed that Iruka-sensei was keeping a close eye on him. 'One slip and…I hate this Kyuubi…'

In taijutsu, Naruto made efforts to seem like a klutz, but Iruka sensed something queer. It was as if Naruto was holding back…a lot, and no matter how much Naruto was trying to cover it up, his movements were too smooth and practiced. He didn't look like he belonged in the Academy at all.

Iruka decided that he needed to talk to Naruto.

* * *

_After school at Naruto's lake_

Naruto casted an elaborate genjutsu over the area and tried to master the Byakugan. 'It's SO hard!!!'

**Well, we don't exactly have a teacher this time…**

'Yeah. And it's not like the Hyuugas will tell me anything either. They'll kill me if they find out I have it. Literally.'

Suddenly, Anko appeared by his side. She had learned of his true identity in an extremely unfortunate situation when Naruto's mask had shattered due to a particularly hard bashing it received from an enemy ninja's club.

His genjutsu normally didn't cover his face, as it would be a waste of chakra, and he had been so surprised, he had dropped the genjutsu covering the rest of him by accident.

Anko had immediately understood why he had wanted to cover up his identity and had given him a spare mask they had carried along. Naruto made her swear not to tell any one and even Yamoto only knew him as Kioshi even now, though he rarely saw him anymore. Naruto was the captain of his own team and Yamoto and Anko had a new team member.

Even though she had understood the gravity of the situation then, she never passed up a chance to tease Naruto about it now, so Naruto wasn't too surprised when she appeared next to him.

He actually enjoyed her company. Kakashi had stopped visiting years ago because of how busy he was, so they had pretty much forgotten about each other.

Anko was annoying, but at least she was someone to talk to and train with. She knew about his ability to absorb kekkai genkais, but even so, she was still surprised when she saw the Hyuuga bloodline in his eyes.

"Wow. Got another one, short stuff?"

"_Who_ are you calling short stuff?" Naruto glared at her and she saw a flash of Kitsune in his eyes. Oops. Guess she had hit a nerve.

Anko smirked. "Whoops. Sorry. Slip of the tongue. So…you got the Byakugan?"

"Yup. It was an accident. Got it off of Neji. He still doesn't know what happened, thankfully."

"The little Hyuuga genius? Wow. Good going. Anyway, I came to tell you training is tomorrow. Meet you at the usual place at 9 am." Anko turned to leave, but was intercepted by Iruka.

"Where is my student going during school hours tomorrow?" Iruka had only heard the last sentence and was curious as to what was going on and why a jounin was visiting a mere academy student.

Naruto/Kitsune intervened. "Ah…well, you see Iruka-sensei. I have a little secret."

Anko's eyes widened. "You're going to tell him?"

"Tell me what?" Iruka was even more intrigued now.

"Ah…Anko-san is in the…Ping Pong Club of Konoha. Yes, that's right. We have a tournament tomorrow! Our team is good."

Iruka raised an eyebrow. "Ping Pong Club." He said disbelievingly.

Anko coughed. "Ah, yes. See. I have a premium ping pong paddle here. She held out a henged kunai, but whipped it away as soon as Iruka had glimpsed it. Iruka still felt something fishy going on. "Well then, I'll call in a sub and watch the tournament to cheer for my student…"

Naruto and Anko sweatdropped. This was not going to be easy…

* * *

After Iruka had left, Naruto and Anko had desperately gotten together some people that owed them and made them "Official members of the Konoha Ping Pong Club."

They still had to find a group to play against, so they rallied another group from the rain village to be the "Official members of the Rain Ping Pong Club." They had a few connections there from an earlier mission.

It was the day of the tournament and Naruto and Anko were feeling quite pleased with themselves. They were able to pull together a nice group to cover up everything. Excellent indeed, except. "Uh…Anko…I've never played ping pong before."

"Ooops. Neither have I." They looked at each other, horrified. "What are we going to do?"

"Hmm…I guess we'll just go with the flow. Anyways, it's time for ACTION!"

Naruto turned to the crowd that had gathered to watch the so called official ping pong club tournament. "Welcome ladies and gentleman! We're going to have a great time to today with some great matches. Please welcome the Official Rain Ping Pong Club! And I'd like to say thanks to my teacher, Iruka-sensei for coming to watch."

Everyone turned to look at Iruka who then turned a bright shade of pink from embarrassment. He didn't actually think that Naruto was part of a Ping Pong club, and now he was stuck here for the whole tournament. He sighed, Naruto smirked. 'Serves him right.'

The matches started. First up was Ibiki against someone from the rain team. It had taken a lot of favors pulled in and a bunch of blackmailing from Anko to get him to this once for them. Ibiki won quickly. The crowd cheered.

It continued like this and somehow, the ninja were taking this way too seriously. "Hey, Anko. Look, they're playing so fast, the paddles are almost catching fire." The crowd loved it.

Soon it was Naruto's turn. He gulped nervously. His opponent was a huge, a good 3 feet taller than Naruto.

'Hey, Kyuubi. Put a genjutsu over my eyes.'

**Sure.**

Kyuubi kept up a jutsu to hide the now activated Sharingan in Naruto's eyes.

"Ok. It's show time. Begin!"

Naruto could have won easily with his 3-tomoe Sharingan, but he put up a good show for the crowd.

"Yatta!" He bowed to the cheering crowd. Many of them could not see Naruto's face clearly which he was glad for, or else the cheers would have turned into boos for the Kyuubi container.

Konoha won the tournament and the Rain team vowed their revenge in the next match.

Naruto and Anko nodded in satisfaction. It had turned out to be an extremely successful endeavor. Many people wanted to join the "club" and Naruto and Anko slipped their names off of the register. Most successful indeed.

* * *

Iruka sighed. A happy ramen-slurping Naruto was sitting next to him at Ichiraku Ramen. Iruka had treated him as his congratulations for winning the tournament, but who knew the kid could eat this much? Naruto smirked as he ate, remembering a similar incident with a wolf-masked ANBU years ago. Life was certainly good.

* * *

Despite the rocky start to their relationship, Naruto and Iruka became good friends, and the day for the Academy finals and dealing with the traitor amongst the staff was there.

Naruto purposely put too much chakra into his bunshin and it went splat on the floor next to him. He almost wanted to burst out laughing at how funny it looked, but that wouldn't do, no that wouldn't at all.

Later that night, he "stole" the scroll as he had planned and went into the forest. He opened up to pretend to be studying from it. 'Yeesh, I know all of these, Kyuu… How boring.'

**Oh, here he comes.**

Iruka crashed into the clearing.

"Will you let me graduate now Iruka-sensei? I learned one thing from the scroll!"

Iruka looked confused. "Who told you this?"

"Mizuki-sensei!" Naruto let some confusion leak into his expression, but noticed when he saw Mizuki appear on a tree and throw kunai at him. He was ready to bat them away, but Iruka pushed him aside and took them himself. 'Baka…'

He acted surprised when Mizuki told him that he was a demon fox. 'This situation is actually pretty humorous, Kyuubi.'

**Yeah…what an idiot. You would think that someone would notice that it wasn't just them in their mind after about 12 years.**

Naruto could have stopped the giant shurikan that Mizuki had hurled at him, but once again, Iruka interfered. 'Darn it. I'll just see how this turns out with Iruka like this. It's not really going to plan, but it'll be interesting to see what happens.'

Naruto ran off into the woods. Mizuki caught up to a figure he recognized as Naruto. He was henged into the appearance of Iruka and told Naruto to give him the scroll. Naruto head butted him to the floor.

"Why—Why Naruto? Why do you know that I" he turned into Mizuki "am not Iruka."

"Because I am." Naruto poofed and turned into Iruka.

"Fine. I was going to deal with you later, but I guess I have no choice." Mizuki unhooked another giant shurikan from his back.

The real Naruto sighed behind a tree. 'I guess break time is over.' He stepped out in front of Iruka. "Don't you dare touch Iruka-sensei. Or else…"

Mizuki smirked. "Or else…?"

"Or else I'll kill you!"

Mizuki laughed. "Yeah…a drop out like you can beat a chunnin like me? Yeah, fat chance!"

"We'll see about that! Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" Hundreds of Narutos appeared. Iruka gasped, and Naruto had to suppress a snigger. He had known this technique since he was 4. What was such a big deal?

The Narutos attacked Mizuki, and by the time that sun had risen, Mizuki was unconscious and looking pretty badly on the forest floor. "Oops, I might have over done it a bit…"

Iruka said. "Come here Naruto. I have something to give you." He made Naruo close his eyes, and when he opened them again, Iruka's hitai-ite was sitting on his forehead.

'Oh, boy. I wanted to wear the one I got from the Academy when I was 5, but I want to wear Iruka-sensei's too. What a fix. I'll figure out something later.' For now, he smiled at Iruka-sensei and they headed back to the village towing an unconscious Mizuki behind.

* * *

**A/N: Ok, I'm still trying to shift all the age and time frame things, but I'm just wondering if anyone knows how long the kids stay in the Academy, and what age they start. Thanks!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer:** Naruto isn't mine.

So, thank you to everyone who answered my question from the last chapter and all those lovely reviews! I may or may not be posting tomorrow, so sorry in advance if I break my chapter-a-day streak.

* * *

_The Next Day_

Naruto walked into the classroom to listen to the lists of new teams and their senseis. He yawned a little. After completing the mission to remove Mizuki, the Hokage had sent him to be briefed on another light mission for the next night and then had asked him to help him with some office work as Genma had called in sick. Didn't old men sleep or know that kids needed to too?

He was too tired to care where he sat, so he plopped down in a random seat. He noticed the Uchiha kid. He had wanted to become friends with him, but he hadn't been all too friendly. Too bad. Naruto just wanted to help him. 'Ah, well there are always second chances…and thirds…and fourths…and however many it takes.'

'Uh oh. Bad choice.' A furious pink-haired girl and a fuming blonde both yelled at him "MOVE NARUTO!"

"Why?"

"Because I want to sit next to Sasuke-kun." They both answered at once and started glaring at each other. Now all the girls in the room were up and vying for a Naruto to move so they could sit next to Sasuke. 'Yeesh. What's wrong with these girls? And what's with Sasuke? He doesn't say anything.'

Naruto was suddenly in front of Sasuke, scrutinizing the other boy for any reason as to why he wouldn't talk. Naruto himself being extremely talkative and outgoing found him a little strange. The tension rose until it seemed like it was taking the form of electricity crackling in between the two.

Out of the blue, a boy by accidentally elbowed Naruto in the back, causing him to tip forward—and join lips with Sasuke! The whole room was in shock at the unbelievable scene! Naruto leapt back and started to wipe his mouth with crazed swipes of his sleeeves. Sasuke just sat there in denial. The girls of course went crazy and when they were done, Naruto was sitting in a different seat with bruises all over and aching to his bones. 'They're worse than a bunch of blood-thirsty missing-nin.' Naruto groaned

By the time Iruka-sensei had walked into the room, most of Naruto's bruises were healed and he had a Naruto grin™ on his face, and the hitai-ite he had given Naruto was tied proudly to his forehead. Secretly, the hitai-ite that he had gotten from the year he had spent with Chikako-sensei was tied around his waist underneath his jumpsuit.

Iruka gave them the customary lecture about becoming ninja and what it meant. Than he started to read out the teams. Finally he got to "Team 7—Uzumaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura, Uchiha Sasuke." Naruto thought over the prospect of being on a team with a rabid fangirl and an indifferent, moody subject of fangirls' attentions. Ah, well. He missed hearing the name of the Team leader, but he wished whoever it was was a lot of fun. Having someone too uptight was never fun coughSasukecough.

Naruto and his team waited for their leader in the classroom. Many team leaders came to pick up their teams, but Team 7's leader was taking forever. He was already three whole hours late.

'This is ridiculous. Let's see…how about we play a harmless trick.' Naruto decided to take a chalkboard eraser and stick it so whoever stepped through the door would get a head full of chalk dust.

"Naruto, what are you doing?" Sakura looked disapprovingly at Naruto, but on the inside, she was elated about playing a practical joke.

"Do you think a Jounin would fall for that?" Sasuke just looked as aloof as usual, but everyone looked expectantly toward the door as a hand appeared to open it.

The person pulled open the door and the eraser bonked him on his head. Naruto looked at his team leader and froze in shock. 'YAY!!! WOLF DUDE-SAN!!!'

He tried to keep his expression deflated as Kakashi commented. "How do I say this? Hmm…my first expression of you is guys is… I hate you." Naruto almost sniggered, but kept his face to the floor.

Kakashi thought 'What the heck? Is this the Hokage's version of a bad joke? I got stuck with the hyper-active ramen loving guy? Oh well. I haven't seen him in a while. How nice. At least I know someone on the team.'

"Alright, Meet me on the roof." He smiled as he zipped to his destination. This was going to be a funny team.

When his team members arrived, he said. "Introduce yourself. Names, likes, dislikes, dreams, hobbies, etc."

"Sensei, why don't you introduce yourself first?" Sakura wanted to know just who this guy was.

"My name is Hatake Kakashi. Hmm…I have no intention of telling you my likes or dislikes. My dream…I have a few hobbies. You. Orange shirt. Go."

'Great we only learned his name from that.' Sakura was a little disappointed and Sasuke was to busy looking bored, so they didn't notice the glare Naruto gave Kakashi for calling him Orange-shirt or the smirk that flashed across Kakashi's face.

'Hmm…He probably wants to know I've changed, so ha…I'll give him this.'

Naruto fiddled around with his hitai-ite and said. "I am Uzumaki Naruto. My likes are RAMEN! I dislike the 3 minutes I have to wait for the water to boil for the ramen. My hobby is eating ramen, and my dream is to become HOKAGE!!!" He added in a lower voice. "Oh, yeah. I like people who can keep secrets."

Kakashi knew the last part was aimed at him. 'Alrighty then. If you want it that way…'

"Next, pink hair girl."

Sakura winced a little, but at least it was better than "Forehead girl." "I am Haruno Sakura. My likes" She looked over at Sasuke. "I dislike Naruto." Naruto pretended to wilt, and Kakashi almost sniggered. "My dream." She looked at Sasuke again. "My hobbies" Another glance.

"Alright. Last one. Go."

"My name is Uchiha Sasuke. I have like few things and dislike many. I have some hobbies. My dream is to…kill a certain man one day."

Kakashi sighed inwardly. It looked like this was going to a lot more fun, and trouble, than he had originally thought. He was wondering if it was worth the effort, but yeah, it probably was. "Meet me tomorrow at 4 am at the training grounds." He turned to go. "Oh, yeah, don't eat breakfast. You're going to puke if you do."

* * *

Naruto sighed. This was annoying. He was standing in a training ground waiting for his team leader AT FOUR IN THE MORNING!!! AND AFTER STUPID OFFICE DUTY LAST NIGHT TOO!!! He felt like screaming. Curse that old man!

Three hours later. 'CURSE THAT WOLF DUDE-SAN!!!'

Kakashi finally arrived, and after a lame excuse and a verbal lashing from Sakura and Naruto, he was finally able to introduce the task.

He held up a pair of bells. "You have to get one of these by noon. If you don't you fail, and you'll be sent back to the Academy." He received a bunch of blank stares and astonished faces.

Of course, Naruto was the first to charge. The other two had hidden themselves, but Naruto demanded a match.

'Achh…what a pain…' Kakashi turned away and brought out his beloved orange book. He blocked Naruto's attacks, and used his "Thousand Years of Pain" to send Naruto into the stream.

'What joy it is acting stupid…' Naruto had noticed instantly when Kakashi had substituted himself, but continued to act like a dumb kid he pretended to be. Nobody would know that the orange clad kid squabbling with his clones was actually a deadly ANBU captain with years of experience.

He let himself be caught in a trap and watched as Sasuke and Sakura started running. He sensed the genjutsu that Kakashi had put up.

'Just great. At least everyone seems busy. He walked over to the Memorial Stone and traced names with his finger. "Chikako-sensei…" 'Uhoh…' Kakashi was approaching. He zipped around to the back and pretended that he was cheating by eating the lunches placed there. "Aw man…Kakashi-san…I was 'thinking outside the box.'"

"Haha…very funny." Kakashi hauled him over to a log and tied him to it. Naruto knew about a dozen different ways he could've got out of it and killed Kakashi right there, but that wouldn't do…How troublesome…

* * *

_Later that day_

Naruto's team had passed the test after saying that "they were one." How corny. Naruto strapped on his mask and became Kitsune reporting for duty.

"Kitsune-san. We have a new mission. You will have to head a different group today. An ANBU has defected and is currently heading toward our Northern border. Your job is to—"

"Yes. I know what I have to do." Kitsune replied calmly. His hand-made katana was strapped onto his back and his pair of kodachi were at his sides. Kitsune loved crafting elegant weapons. Each was a work of art and intense labor. They were perfectly balanced and did their jobs perfectly.

Kitsune looked over at his temporary team. A hunter-nin wearing a bear mask was going to accompany them. The rest of his team were some ANBU he recognized: Inu, Hebi, Ookami. He was a little surprised that a certain wolf was going with them for one mission, and that Yamoto was being placed under his command. It was quite disconcerting, but Kitsune could deal with it.

"Alright. Let's go." He immediately started to track the defected ANBU. Kakashi might think that he had the best nose of the team, but Kitsune knew that his own scent-tracking skills were about 20 times stronger that anyone in the village. He followed the trail quite easily, even though it was concealed quite well. The ANBU they were tracking must be quite skilled.

They came upon the subject of the chase quite quickly and Kitsune signaled for the hunter-nin to stay back unless he was needed for a much less pleasant job. The hunter-nin complied and melted into the shadows.

Kitsune instructed his team to surround the target and they dropped down on all sides. The ANBU turned out to be a young teenage boy. He stopped and looked around wildly. "Why don't you just let me go? I don't want to go back to that. All my friends…they…"

Suddenly, he lashed out. Kitsune matched him blow for blow, but one deflected slice snagged some of his hair. The henge slipped on the severed hair and they went back to their normal blonde state. Hebi saw, but made sure that the view was blocked so that Kitsune could grind them into the dirt before anyone else noticed.

Kitsune quickly pushed him back. "NO! I DON'T WANT TO GO BACK!!! I'LL NEVER COME BACK!" Kitsune sighed. "I guess we don't have any choice." He gave the go ahead to the hunter-nin.

However, the boy somehow had enough time to form some seals, and just as the hunter-nin appeared, a giant shockwave ripped through the clearing. It blasted all of the ANBU's masks so hard, they shattered. Kitsune had learned from the time when his mask had broken in front of Anko, so his mask was reinforced with other materials. As soon as he saw what the kid was going to do, he had also channeled chakra into the mask to hold it together. He was the only one to do so, so everyone else's mask broke off. Kitsune smirked as the others looked around at each other. He saw Kakashi and the rest of them look at him, a little surprised that his mask was still intact.

After the attack, the hunter-nin wasted no time. He was on the target in a flash and a kunai through the forehead made for a swift death. Kitsune's eyes widened behind his mask when he saw just who the hunter-nin was. 'Iruka-sensei?!?! Wow…he's good. Even I didn't suspect him!'

Kitsune whipped out an extra mask and pressed it onto Iruka's face as it looked like it was a little hard for the hunter-nin to conceal it in front of so many people and dispose of the body at the same time. "Your secret is safe with me." Kitsune whispered as he swept by.

'Oh, Joy… he says that, but I still gotta keep my secret' thought Iruka. The rest of the team left, but Kitsune stayed behind for the hunter-nin.

When he was done, the hunter stood up and released his own katana from his sheath. "I'm sorry, but I really have to keep my secret. I can't make any exceptions." He lunged for Kitsune who slid out both kodachi and parried the katana. "Yes, I understand, but you should know I can't just die without a fight." The hunter nodded. It did make sense.

The fight continued, but it looked like they were evenly matched. That is, until Kitsune decided that it was getting boring and that he had successfully mapped out the hunter's skills. With a flick of both kodachi, the larger sword was wrested from the hunter's hands and driven into a nearby tree.

"Sorry, but I guess, I'm just a bit stronger." The hunter-nin was surprised. No one had ever beaten him before, and Kitsune had just done so without breaking a sweat.

"Well. I don't really know what I'm supposed to do since I won, but I guess, I'll just go on my merry way." Kitsune turned to go, but stopped, making a decision. He ran up to Iruka and gave him a hug, releasing the henge and genjutsu gradually, until a bemused hunter was being hugged by a blonde half his size. "No…it can't be…"

"Yup! Hi, Iruka-sensei!" Naruto tugged the mask off. "Now, we are equal. It's only fair. I have your secret, now you have mine."

Iruka was shocked beyond belief. "Wow…I really don't know what to say. I'll probably wake up in the middle of the night and finally realize 'Naruto's the best ANBU in the village?!?' and faint."

"Can we go for ramen now?" Naruto grinned.

'Ahh…well I guess he's Naruto right now. Funny how he can change personalities like that.' Iruka checked his wallet and determined there was just enough. "Alright, Naruto, but only 6 bowls this time. I only have a bit of cash left."

Naruto squealed. "YES!!!" Then he put on his mask, turned in the direction of the village, and said. "But we need to hand in the report. Let's get moving."

Iruka's head was still spinning from the sudden changes in character as he followed Naruto back.

* * *

Naruto yawned a bit, but brightened up to his cheery self as he bounded up to the other members of his team. "Morning Sakura-chaaaaaaaaaaaaannnnn! Morning Sasuke!"

The day continued with the usual boring D-rank missions that Naruto always found a way to mess up in and act like a completed doofus.

* * *

_That Evening_

Kitsune walked into the Hokage's office. The Hokage looked up and his eyes dimmed a little. "Kitsune, you may take the night off if you wish."

Kitsune was a little puzzled. "May I ask why Hokage-sama?"

The Hokage merely pressed an envelope into his hand and closed his fingers around it. He guided Kitsune over to a seat and patted him on the back. Kitsune started to have a bad feeling. The Hokage never acted so fatherly to Kitsune.

His hands shook as he peeled open the envelope and read the field report on a missing team. He read words like "signs of ambush and struggle" "bodies left in open" "all confirmed dead" "killed by enemy" He felt like crying. His team, his family. He was their captain, and they had gone on a supposedly light mission without him to free him up for harder work, and they had been ambushed. They were all dead now.

The Hokage thought he heard a few sobs from the ANBU reading the report, but when Kitsune looked up again, only an impassive, emotionless mask stared up at the Hokage. "If it is alright, I would like to continue my missions. There is no use dwelling on the past. I would like to meet my new team in an hour, please."

The Hokage nodded. "If you are sure, I will have them meet you then."

Kitsune departed, and the Hokage knew just where he was going as he watched the lone figure bounding across rooftops.

* * *

Kitsune wasn't too surprised when he saw someone was there before him, so he just waited in the trees for his own turn. He kept waiting, but then he got a little curious as to why the person had been just standing there for over half an hour.

He looked over and saw the person trace a few names a few more times and say softly. "I'm going now. I decided to rejoin ANBU for a little bit, so I have to meet my team. I think I was supposed to meet them a while ag—" Suddenly, he spotted a hawk wheeling overhead. "Oh, ok. I guess I'll be on time for once. There was a change of plans." Kakashi turned to leave, but then he noticed a figure standing next to him.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't know that there was someone else waiting. I'll go now." Kakashi informed the ANBU next to him.

"No, it's alright. I just wanted to say a quick goodbye. My teammates died yesterday. I found out this evening." Kakashi nodded. He understood. "But, you know. I think they're here telling me to go on. I think they'll be happy that I don't come here too often. They want me to move on." The ANBU with the hood up traced a couple of newly added names and departed.

Kakashi thought over the words he had heard from the ANBU. 'Oh, now I finally understand.' Kakashi could almost hear his old teammates telling him to move on, now. He realized that he had been deaf to them before, and he had just been wallowing in grief and guilt that would not do him any good.

He patted the stone one last time and turned to go, vowing to spend more time getting on with his life rather than hanging around an old stone for the rest of his time on the earth.

* * *

Kitsune walked over to a clearing in the forest which he had designated as their meeting spot. He was pleasantly surprised when he saw who would be on his team. Hebi and Kuma were there. Iruka had resigned from his post as hunter-nin to become a better shinobi, and had been placed on Kitsune's team as Kuma. Their last team member had not arrived yet. 'Uh oh. I have a bad feeling about this.'

**Me too. Are you thinking what I'm thinking?**

Sure enough, Ookami dropped in with another of his patented lame excuses. The rest of the team just rolled their eyes behind their masks, but Kitsune was a little nervous. 'This is going to be hard…Isn't it a little weird that when I have a mask on, my subordinate is my sensei when I'm not an ANBU?'

The newly formed team trained together. Little did Kakashi know that everyone one except him knew the identities of each other and their captain.

The new team turned out to be a devastating combination. Mission after mission, they proved their worth, and they were soon doing SS-ranked missions on a daily basis.

Naruto continued to do regular genin appropriate missions with his team, but was Kitsune at night, free to be a true shinobi of the Hidden Leaf.

* * *

_One day at the Missions Office_

"YO, ojii-san. These missions are WAY to boring. Can't we have something more interesting?"

"Naruto! _Genins_ are only supposed to do D-ranked." Said Iruka with a twinkle in his eye.

"Yeah, but Hokage-jii. We've been doing soooo many of them. Can't we have anything else?"

Kakashi sighed. He was going to be in trouble for this later. Something about not enough discipline on his team. He opened his mouth to say something, but then the Hokage said "Alright. I'll give you a C-ranked mission just this once." Now, Kakashi's mouth was hanging open beneath his mask. He wasn't expecting the Hokage to say something like that. The rest of the team was equally surprised.

"Listen up. This is an escort mission. You are to bring Tazuna-san back to the Country of the Wave safely so he can finish building a bridge there. Tazuna-san, will you please come out and meet your escort?"

A slightly inebriated-looking man stepped out. "What these kids are supposed to bring me back safely? I mean, can someone like the short blonde fend off any thieves?"

"I'M NOT SHORT OR STUPID!!!" Naruto launched himself at the man and was pulled back by Kakashi. 'Wait, what?' Naruto was much heavier than he looked, and Kakashi could feel something hard and heavy underneath Naruto's squashy looking appearance.

Naruto stopped and popped out of Kakashi's grasp and stood glaring at the person they were supposed to protect. Kakashi sighed. This was going to be a long trip.

* * *

Kakashi met his ANBU team to tell them that he would be gone for the week.

"Yeah, I got to go on a mission to the Wave with my genin team."

"Oh…haha, have fun!" Hebi snickered. She had heard the stories of the horrors of raising genin teams.

"We'll all be splitting up for individual missions, so that's alright. So, how's the team?" Kitsune had warmed up a little bit to his team members, so the question wasn't too unexpected.

"Hmm…they're not bad, but I've got a rabid fangirl, a moody revenge-motivated kid, and a hyper-active ramen loving guy."

"Sounds fun." The whole team looked shocked when they heard a snicker from their emotionless captain.

* * *

**A/N: Who's up for the Wave mission in the next chapter?! hehe, anyway, I'm still working on the age and timeline discrepencies. No one's offered Chapter titles yet. -puppy dog eyes- Pleaseee.**

**Also, since a couple people have been asking about pairings, I don't think I'm putting one in. I know people usually expect them, but this is a more general/adventure story, and I think I'd just mess up any attempts at romance. Maybe another story. Thanks for the suggestions anyway!  
**


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: Nope, Naruto doesn't belong to me.**

So, I actually was able to get around to posting today. I have one more chapter of material (Chapter 7) before I have to get writing. Tommorow will probably be the last time I'm going to post on a daily basis, but I'm hoping to get in weekly updates if not shorter intervals. That's enough of my talking, here's the story!

* * *

_The Next Day_

The group walked out of the village and embarked on their journey. Naruto had a knapsack full of ramen, but little did anyone know that in a concealed pocket, Naruto had brought his full ANBU uniform and mask. His weapons were on the seal on his wrist. He was all ready for anything that could go wrong.

A little while along, Naruto noticed a puddle. 'That's odd. We didn't have any rain for a couple of days.' He saw that Kakashi had noticed too and had discreetly dropped to the back of the group for the potential assault.

Sure enough, suddenly, two ninjas leaped out and cut Kakashi to pieces. Sakura screamed and Sasuke whipped out a kunai. The rain ninjas were wrapping their chains around Sasuke next, but Naruto replaced Sasuke with himself. He felt the chains graze him, but he was faster and leaping on top of the chains that were taut around the log he had used for a second replacement, he reached the ends and with a few quick blows, disconnected them from the nins.

They lunged at him with their claws, and a handful of them sunk into Naruto's hand. He howled in pain and ripped his hand free, leapt into the air and preformed a kick that smashed both of their heads to the ground.

Sakura and Sasuke were astounded. They didn't know that Naruto was capable of such feats, but their amazement was short lived as Naruto collapsed. Suddenly, Kakashi was there, catching Naruto as he fell.

Naruto started to convulse. A large amount of poison had been injected to his bloodstream from the claws of the Rain nin. He bit back a gasp of pain as he straightened up.

Kakashi was pulling out medical equipment to try to stem the spread of the poison until they reached the village, but Naruto, with steely determination, brought up his kunai and plunged it deep into his hand, letting a large amount of poisoned blood drip to the floor. Everybody looked on in astonishment. Naruto let it keep dripping until he knew that all the poison was out. He smiled weakly. "There…all better."

"Well…Naruto. I appreciate your enthusiasm to get rid of the poison, but you might die from blood loss if you keep letting all of it flow out…

Naruto decided it was time for the stupid kid act again. "WHAT?!?!? NOOOO!! SAVE ME KAKASHI-SENSEI!"

Kakashi inspected his hand, and his eye widened slightly. He saw the cut knitting itself together already. 'The chakra of the Kyuubi must be really powerful.

"What happened Kakashi-sensei? What's wrong? Am I going to die? WAGHGHH!"

"No…it's nothing. Be still. I'm trying to bandage it." Kakashi was struggling a little because Naruto was squirming too much.

"Oh…that's all. Ok. I'll do it myself. I could probably do it better. The nurses showed me how. I'm used to it."

Everyone winced at that, and Naruto had it bandaged up in no time.

Kakashi confronted Tazuna. "What are you not telling us? This is not a C-rank! You put my team in serious danger. What are you hiding?"

Tazuna told him the story of the desperation of the Wave Country and how the evil business man, Gatou had ruined the people of the Country for his own benefit.

The team's anger turned into sympathy, and they decided to keep helping Tazuna with his task.

Team 7 continued on its way, but this time, Naruto kept his eyes on the ground and activated his new dojutsu—the Shyakugan, a combination of the Sharingan and Byakugan. It used up an immense amount of chakra, but with Naruto's help from the Kyuubi, it was nothing.

His eyes were now milky white with the three tomoes in the center. They flashed red occasionally, giving it the illusion of flames flickering in his eyes.

The Shyakugan had an even better eye of insight and its copying abilities were heightened from the ability to see in a 360 degree field of vision. There was no blind spot, and it's genjutsu casting skills were unparalleled. Overall, the Shyakugan was an incredibly powerful dojutsu.

Suddenly, Naruto saw something spinning toward them. "DOWN!" He shoved Tazuna, Sakura, and Sasuke down. Kakashi ducked and not a moment too soon as a giant blade embedded itself in the tree behind them. Someone appeared on top of the sword, facing the other way.

Naruto instantly recognized him. "Zabuza, demon of the Mist," he muttered. He had instantly noticed when a "hunter-nin" had appeared to observe the ensuing skirmish.

Kakashi was being sorely beaten by the "demon" even though he had his Sharingan eye open, and a blow from the hilt of the giant head-cleaving sword to his head sent him sprawling to the bank. Sakura and Sasuke gasped. 'Darn it, I'm still tired from all the ANBU missions they sent us on.'

Kakashi stood up to continue fighting even in his chakra depleted state, but a hand from an ANBU stopped him. He looked over in surprise. Kitsune stared back.

"Looks like I can't stop keeping an eye on you, eh?" Kitsune muttered in a low voice so only Kakashi could hear.

Kakashi looked a little embarrassed that he was messing up so badly in front of his captain.

The ANBU nudged Kakashi in the direction of his team and turned to face Zabuza.

"I don't have all day. Are you going to attack or what?" Kitsune drawled in a lazy voice.

Zabuza shook his head at the insolence of this guy. ANBU or not, Zabuza wasn't going to let anyone take him lightly. He suddenly appeared in front of Kitsune with his sword ready to cleave him in half, but Kitsune had moved already and was behind him, with his lazy appearance still intact.

"You better move faster than that if you want to catch a fox." Kitsune sliced through him with a kunai, but the figure collapsed into water. Kitsune didn't miss a beat. "Come out, come out, wherever you are."

Bubbles rose up from area beneath Kitsune, who unbelievably plunged his hand into the water and pulled out a disbelieving Zabuza by the ear. "Yo. I found ya." He flicked his wrist and sent Zabuza crashing into a tree.

Zabuza grunted, but recovered and appeared in front of Tazuna, trying to complete his task before he was diced by the ANBU. "No, no. That won't do." Kitsune had blocked the blow with his hand. He had stopped it so that it hadn't even nicked his hand.

Kitsune wiggled his finger in a half-wave. "Bye-bye." Zabuza saw a blur of seals unfamiliar seals being preformed by Kitsune's one free hand, and was too confused to react quickly. 'What's going on?!? One-handed seals?!'

Kitsune opened his mouth and a jet of mud flew out and pinned Zabuza against a tree. The team watched open-mouthed as Kitsune approached the trapped figure and drew his katana. He was about five paces away when two senbon flew into Zabuza's neck.

A mist hunter-nin stepped down to claim Zabuza's body. Kitsune already knew that something was amiss. The hunter-nin didn't dispose of the body on the spot and it was pretty obvious to someone with intensive training in the field of human anatomy like him knew that Zabuza definitely wasn't dead. 'Hmm…I need to investigate this. Might not be a good idea to kill them right now.' So Kitsune let it slide until he was able to spend more time checking out what the heck was going on.

He turned to face the team. "Good thing I was here for something else. You guys should seriously train more with Kakashi-_sensei_. Good luck with the rest of you mission." Kitsune turned to go, but caught Kakashi before he collapsed and handed him to an astounded Sakura. She could've swore she saw a wink from behind the mask before he disappeared.

Naruto exhaled slowly. It had been really hard to change fast and switch with his kage bunshin without letting anyone else notice. He helped Sakura carry Kakashi and they proceeded to Tazuna's home.

* * *

Kakashi heard low voices muttering about trivial things and a loud "Shh!" and "Ow! What was that for Sakura-chaaaaaan?" He sighed. All the sound stopped. There was a "Shh! You woke him up!" A loud bonk that sounded suspiciously like a fist being driven into a skull and then another "Ouch!"

Kakashi cracked open his eye to see his team gathered around him. He groaned, sat up, and asked "How long have I been out?"

"Two days, Kakashi-sensei."

"Just great. Anyway, why don't I make you guys do some training since you've probably been slacking off for the past few days."

"Yosh! Let's go!" Naruto handed Kakashi some crutches and helped him out the door.

Sakura sighed. Who knew people could wake up from being unconscious for two days and suddenly force them to train?

The Team stopped at a clearing, and Kakashi explained the tree walking exercise.

Naruto grinned, but on the inside 'Oh, boy. Kyuu, this is going to be troublesome. I have to look like an idiot. This is going to hurt…'

* * *

Naruto panted heavily. He had "finally" mastered the exercise.

**Geez, all this trouble for something I taught you when you were 3, just great.** Kyuubi grumbled while fixing up Naruto's cuts and bruises.

Kakashi was pretty impressed. 'I guess this team might be worth it after all.' Team 7's members had mastered the tree walking exercise in a day. 'Not bad at all.'

He watched as Sasuke and Naruto looked like they were ready to collapse. The competition had been extremely fierce between them, and Sasuke and Naruto had both pushed passed their absolute limits to try to beat the other in completing the exercise first. 'My…what rivalry.'

But, Naruto and Sasuke's rivalry had seemed to, in a strange way, push them closer together and strengthen their friendship. "C'mon, baka. Do I have to carry you the whole way?—" Sasuke had a priceless expression on his face as Naruto flung him over his shoulders "'cuz it's DINNERTIME!!!" Naruto sprinted back to the house with a very indignant Uchiha slung over his back.

'Geez…that kid knows no bounds when it comes to food. I bet he would've gotten up there 3 times as fast if I put a bowl of ramen up there.' Kakashi shook his head and followed his team back.

* * *

Haku stopped as she heard snoring coming from a clearing. She stealthily advanced to the slumbering form and recognized it as one of the Konoha ninja. She shook him awake.

"Ghh…hmm? Uh…oh! Hello! Who are you?" Naruto had decided to be alone for a bit in the woods after his angry outburst and Inari and had fallen asleep outside for the whole night.

"My name is Haku...You know you're going to get sick if you stay out here any longer."

Naruto sat up and looked at her. 'Yup, definitely that "hunter-nin." What should I do, Kyuu?'

**Just talk.**

"Do you have someone precious to you that you want to protect?" Naruto was a little surprised at the suddenness of the question, but he answered "Of course. I have many precious people I want to protect as long as I live!"

"Then you know the true meaning of being strong." Haku smiled. They chatted a little more before Haku left. "Oh, and by the way, I'm a man."

Naruto laughed. "Liar! You are so not!"

They argued back and forth until Haku smiled "Fine, but don't tell anyone else!" and disappeared.

Naruto sat there thinking. "She's a nice person. I can't just kill her if we fight again.'

His thoughts were interrupted when Sasuke ran into the clearing. "Kakashi-sensei said to meet him at the lake in 2 minutes, and if he's there before us, he'll make us run 30 laps around the lake for every minute we're late!"

Naruto gasped, leapt up, and tore after Sasuke, running for his life. They saw the lake and stopped at the bank, gasping for breath. "Whew! We got here in time!" They looked around but only saw Sakura waiting too. "Where's Kakashi-sensei?"

* * *

_2 hours later_

"I am so going to kill you!" Naruto was furious. Kakashi had made them sprint to the lake in less than 2 minutes, and had made them wait 2 hours.

Now, Naruto's mouth formed into an evil smirk, and after his customary pathetic excuses, Kakashi started to feel a little uneasy.

"So…since all of you did so well with the tree walking, I'm going to teach you the next step. With tree walking, you practiced gathering enough chakra in the right spot, now you'll have to—" Kakashi stopped when he saw a figure.

"Huh? Sensei?" The others turned around to look across the lake.

The figure poured out consolidated chakra into a stream that formed a flat, elongated platform. "YATTA!" The figure hopped aboard and channeled enough chakra into the water to create waves that disturbed the calm surface.

He was…_surfing_?

Kakashi's jaw almost fell off when he saw who it was

'KITSUNE!?!?!'

"Yo!" The figure hopped off and gathered up the chakra...surfboard which he had been on and then reabsorbed it back into his hand.

The team looked absolutely amazed, especially the Naruto kage bunshin. Kitsune was wearing regular civilian clothes which had not even been moistened by his feats on the water. If he hadn't been wearing his mask, the team wouldn't have recognized him.

Even though he was wearing a low-backed shirt and shorts, Kakashi could still detect many weapons in the tiny area which they could be concealed. He had somehow even managed to bring a long a full length katana without looking constricted or uncomfortable.

"I'm pretty much done with my business, so I decided to come visit you guys to see how it's going." Kitsune reached up to take off his porcelain fox mask. Kakashi's eyes widened. Kitsune had never let anyone see has face before (or so he thought).

But, everyone's hopes vanished when they saw that underneath was… another cloth mask. Only his eyes were show—wait…never mind. A forehead protector was covering them.

They wondered how he could see, but he didn't look like his vision had been affected. Kitsune had activated his Shyakugan to be able to see through the steel plate that attached to the cloth.

They could only see his hair, which was inky black. Kakashi was still a bit shocked at what his taichou had done. He just stood there in denial.

Kitsune smirked under his mask. "Yo! Kakashi-san. Can I speak with you?"

Kakashi just nodded, and coming to his senses a bit, he was able to walk a bit more into the woods with Kitsune to come out of earshot from the genins.

"Can I train with them?" Kakashi was a bit surprised. He had never seen Kitsune acting like this. It was all very strange to him. "Uh, sure. Just don't kill them."

"Sure. No prob." Kakashi could've sworn that, somehow, Kitsune had winked behind the hitai-ate. Kitsune looked like he was going to say something else, but decided against it and instead just headed back toward the younger group.

"Hey! How are you guys anyway? I never caught your names…Care to clear it up?" Kitsune smiled under his mask at them.

"I'm Uzumaki Naruto!!!"

"My name is Haruno Sakura. Pleased to meet you, ANBU-san."

"Uchiha Sasuke."

"Well, thank you very much. I'm captain of a black ops ANBU squad, and my codename is Kitsune. Do you want to try training with me?"

"YAYAYAY!!!" The Naruto kage bunshin was ecstatic.

"But…you have to complete Kakashi-san's exercise first." Kitsune grinned and the rest of the group seemed deflated.

But, once Naruto stepped up to the lake to try it out, Sasuke rushed forward to try and beat him too. Sakura rushed after her crush, and soon, the whole team was attempting the water walk exercise.

"Hey. Naruto. That's too much you're putting in. You're going to fall i—"

SPLOOSH "Awww...I'm all wet now!"

SPLOOSH

SPLOOSH

The whole team was sopping wet and very grumpy looking after they had practiced for what had seemed like hours. Kitsune realized that they only needed a little more time, and by late afternoon, had pretty much completed the exercise. 'Hey…pretty good.' Kakashi thought of his team with pride.

"Wahh…" Naruto collapsed on the bank, exhausted from channeling and controlling so much chakra. His team mates flopped beside him too. Kakashi was sitting in a tree as usual with his questionable reading material.

Surprisingly, Kitsune had brought lunch. They watched as a seal appeared on his wrist, usually invisible when not in use. Sakura gasped when she saw it. She recognized it as one of the most advanced containing seals one could learn.

Kitsune tapped the seal and brought out a huge amount of food. Everyone's eyes widened from surprise. Kitsune smiled. "Itadakimasu! Hey, Kakashi, why don't you come down? I brought enough for everyone."

Kakashi noticed that everyone had their favorite foods and his were there too. 'What in the world? Oh well…'

Everyone dug in, and Kitsune watched, satisfied with his handiwork. Kakashi had zipped back up the tree as soon as he had shoveled in enough food while managing not to remove his mask in the process.

The team was a little disappointed when they realized that they wouldn't be able to see their sensei's face, but were more preoccupied with the food until Sakura pipped up and asked, "Kitsune-san, why aren't you eating anything?"

"Oh. I'm not hungry. You guys done? Alright! Back to training." Everyone felt better and was getting up when Kakashi sensed something weird. He whipped up his hitai-ate to open his Sharingan eye and was almost blinded when he saw how much everyone's chakra had just flared up.

"Kitsune! What did you do?!?" Kitsune just smiled, spun something in his fingers, threw it up in the air and caught it between his teeth, smiling even wider when he saw that Kakashi recognized what it was.

Kakashi remembered in the nick of time to cover his Sharingan up before Kitsune's chakra shot sky high from the soldier pill he had crunched in between his teeth. 'Oh Kami-sama. Is the training going to be so hard that he had to give them _soldier pills_?'

Kakashi groaned. What had he gotten his team into?

Kitsune clapped his hands and said "Alright. Everyone adjusted to the chakra flare-up now?" The three genin had felt a little odd after the sudden rush of extra chakra. It was a good thing that Kitsune's Shyakugan was such an evolved dojutsu. Naruto's eyes had been able to adjust to the abnormally high amounts of chakra and he had not been blinded as Kakashi had.

"Let's go!" Surprisingly, Sasuke attacked first, forming handseals to see if he could surprise the ANBU by performing a jutsu that was chuunin-level. He blew a giant fireball, but Kitsune formed a sphere of chakra, caught the fireball inside and squeezed it until it was the size of a ping pong ball.

He flicked it over his shoulder. Sakura and Naruto, who had been trying to sneak up behind to attack while Sasuke created a diversion with the fire element, tried to dive away, but Kitsune released the pressure on the ball and it exploded violently, shattering trees and boulders.

However, Naruto and Sakura weren't hurt as Kitsune had then proceeded to create chakra shields around them. He hauled them to their feet, turned to a wide-eyed Sasuke and said, "Lesson 1: Expect the unexpected. ALL THE TIME!! Corny, but true."

Sakura tried to punch his back, and when it connected, she readied for a retaliation. However, the figure disappeared in a puff of smoke and a log dropped to the ground.

The three of them formed a triangle with backs to the center, covering each other's blind spots. Too late, Sasuke remembered his earlier experience with the bell test, and when he jumped into the air, Kitsune's voice came from below "Too late" and all three were jerked below ground in the "Doton: Shinjuu Zanshu no Jutsu."

However, only Naruto was caught. He had replaced Sasuke and Sakura with logs, but he had not time to replace himself. Sasuke repaid the favor by helping to tug him out and all three bounded into the trees.

Kitsune smiled. They were working better together than he thought they would. Sasuke aimed a kick at him. He moved to guard, but Sakura came up on his side, switched positions with Sasuke and the kick connected with his unguarded backs of his knees and a fist caught him in the face.

Again, the figure disappeared in a cloud of smoke as a kage bunshin. It had been a nice move though, Kitsune had to admit.

Naruto came up behind him where he was in the trees and preformed Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu. 'Oh, gosh.' He had to go against his stupid selves. This was going to hurt.

**Well just think of it as an opportunity to test your pain threshold.**

'Sure…'Kitsune quickly wiped them all out. When the last clone dispersed, he almost felt like collapsing from the accumulated pain signals of the clones and the effort of keeping up a genjutsu and maintaining a kage bunshin all at the same time.

The "real" Naruto had run off somewhere, but Kitsune had dispersed over 300 clones. He winced. Kakashi noticed and wondered what was going on, but Kitsune continued dodging teamed attacks and exchanging his own.

By the time the sun had set, Sasuke, Sakura, and "Naruto" were exhausted even after consuming another soldier pill during the training session. Kakashi hopped down to collect his team to get back to Tazuna's house.

They all said thank you and farewell and Kitsune disappeared to get back to Konoha. Kakashi was impressed by the amount of teamwork the little group had displayed and it was all thanks to a certain fox-masked ANBU. 'Hmm…Maybe I should push them a little more on my own too…' thought Kakashi sheepishly.

* * *

**A/N: When I originally wrote this, I wrote the last scene for fun as an action scene. I decided to keep it because it's kind of entertaining. The next chapter will have the end of the Wave Mission and other good stuff.**

**Thank you to all the people leaving such nice reviews, and to answer some questions, I know Kakashi is kind of being really slow and not realizing who is Kitsune's other identity, but it's all for something funny later. Ok, I'll stop talking now.  
**


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: Nope, Naruto doesn't belong to me.**

Here's the rest of the Wave Mission! The story is going to start to have a few more serious scenes in it now, just so everyone is warned. Serious as in not happyhappyjoyjoy all the time.

* * *

_Next day_

Team 7, minus Naruto (who was still snoring from the exhaustion of the previous day's training), went to the bridge with Tazuna. It wasn't very long until a heavy mist started forming around the bridge…

At the house, Naruto woke up, realized everyone was gone and rushed out the door to meet the rest of his team. He felt uneasy and decided to head back to the house. He helped out Inari with some thugs that were threatening him and his mom and then rushed back towards the bridge faster than ever, his gut feeling almost overwhelming now. He had learned to trust his gut feelings long ago…

At the bridge, Kakashi had engaged Zabuza and Sasuke had been trapped into the dome of mirrors. Naruto instantly went to where Sasuke was. He couldn't be seen by anyone else if he was to do what he was planning.

Naruto strode up to one of the mirrors and placed his hand against it. Haku, who had just knocked out Sasuke into a death-like trance, froze and felt a burning pain spread throughout her body. 'What's going on?'

Naruto walked in as soon as he had absorbed her kekkai genkai. Haku looked at him with wide eyes. "You!" Naruto walked up to the mirror Haku was in and his hand slipped in. He pulled a shocked Haku out next to him.

"Hello, Haku." Haku was still more shocked when she realized that Naruto knew who she was behind the mask. "I have an offer." Naruto sat down and explained that he could bring Haku back to Konoha to become a ninja there instead of having to work with dishonorable men like Gatou.

Haku readily agreed when she heard. It sounded like a much better life for her and Zabuza than hiding like thieves and taking dirty jobs.

Naruto still had to make it look like he had beaten Haku some other way than being able to absorb kekkai genkai, so he told Haku to stand back while he blew apart the empty mirrors with the Kyuubi's chakra.

Haku knew when it was good to keep secrets, and she knew how to so Naruto was perfectly fine with her knowing more about his abilities than anyone else.

'Yo, Kyuu…It's showtime!'

**Can I make it look scary?**

'Whatever…just make it look cool.'

**Sure thing, Kit. **Kyuubi laughed to himself.

Haku looked on, curious, as Naruto stood still, retreating into his inner world. He met Kyuubi there and let Kyuubi's chakra leak out of the seal to form a chakra replication of the nine-tail demon fox. The chakra started leaking out of Naruto's body and suddenly exploded outwards, creating a huge chakra blast of orange chakra in the shape of a huge demon fox head.

Kakashi and Zabuza both froze. Kakashi realized what it was and thought. 'This is bad. The seal is breaking now? Now of all times?'

The dome of ice mirrors blasted apart. Naruto let the chakra die down slowly. He turned around to Haku and bowed. "Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen for watching our Nine-tails special." He grinned and Haku smiled back.

Then Haku gasped. She transported herself right in front of Zabuza. The Chidori that Kakashi had generated went right through to her heart.

"NO!" Naruto had come over too and caught Haku as she fell. He discreetly shoved a small ice senbon into a pointing her neck to slow down her body functions to low enough that she would survive for about 10 minutes more so he could find a way to heal her.

Zabuza wasn't looking to good either. His arms were immobilized with kunai. He said, "I think you are wrong this time too, Kakashi. I'm not dead; only my tool is."

Naruto screamed and berated Zabuza for being so uncaring about Haku who was willing to go to the last resort and die for Zabuza. Finally, Zabuza had had enough. "Be quiet, kid." Naruto shut up and looked at him. Zabuza had tears streaming down his face.

Naruto's eyes softened once he knew that Zabuza really had cared for Haku. "Take care of this for me, kid. You're a good person." Zabuza shrugged off his huge sword and let it fall to the floor. He ripped a kunai out of his arm with his teeth, ignoring the pain, and turned to face Gatou's men who had appeared on the edge of the bridge.

They didn't know what hit them. Zabuza cut a bloody swath through them and struck down Gatou. "See you, later." Zabuza whispered as he slashed Gatou with the kunai. He froze, the damage Gatou's henchmen had done finally taking a hold. His last thought before he died was a wish to see Haku again later…

Just then, the mercenaries realized their source of income was gone. They turned to get rid of the ninja standing on the bridge for revenge. Instead of seeing only a few people, however, they were facing a mob of angry villagers and 20 clones of an angry Naruto. They panicked and fled, most of them toppling over the edge of the bridge to their deaths.

Naruto's clones dispersed. He looked down at Haku, wondering how he could heal her. He got a sudden flash of inspiration. Kitsune in ANBU gear suddenly appeared over the side of the bridge. "Looks like I'm a bit late." Kakashi had passed out from chakra exhaustion, so there weren't any questions from him. The villagers were cleaning up the bridge and only Sakura and "Naruto" were watching.

Kitsune's hands began to glow bright green, lighting up a wide area. They glowed brighter and brighter as Kitsune desperately tried to heal the incredible damage done to Haku's heart. Slowly, the tissue began to come back to life, regenerating into healthy tissue, ready to beat again. Kitsune let out a long breath. It had taken a lot of chakra out of him and he was ready to pass out, but after giving an explanation of why he was there to Naruto and Sakura, Kitsune pulled out the senbon from Haku's neck, healed Kakashi a bit, and departed.

Naruto and Sakura watched as Haku came back to a steady heart and breathing rate. Sasuke had already woken up and was busy plucking out needles. Naruto and Sakura helped him out and in no time, everyone was feeling ok.

* * *

_5 days later_

Kakashi and Haku had recovered fully and Team 7 needed to get back to Konoha. They were departing and Naruto and Inari were bawling at having to be separated. They had become very close friends and Inari was distressed to see his cool "aniki" leaving.

The villagers had decided to officially call their newly completed project the "Bridge of Great Friendship" in honor of all the newly created bonds that the Konoha villagers had made with them, but unofficially, it was called the Great Naruto Bridge by everyone in honor of the little blond who had brought so much change to the hearts of the villagers.

Yes…it did seem all back to normal, and the Team and Haku headed back to the villager with a shouted "YOSH!!! LET'S GO!" from Naruto and a giant "Ooofff." As he sagged under the weight of the huge sword that Zabuza had left him

Yes. All back to normal.

_

* * *

_

_At the gate to Konoha_

"WE'RE BACK!!!" Naruto was happy. He rushed through the gate. He was about halfway up the block when the others came through.

Suddenly, a crowd surrounded the rest of Team 7. Sakura's parents were leading them. All of the villagers there congratulated the team, and Naruto just looked back, numb, not feeling anything. It was disappointing being all alone, but he was used to it by now. That's why he was Kitsune.

Kakashi looked over the tops of the villager's heads to see where Naruto was. He saw him up the road and realized what had happened. Naruto was just standing there, with a look in his eyes. It wasn't anger or frustration, just a sad and longing. He was about to call out to Naruto, but the little blonde had turned to go already, disappearing into the shadows of the buildings in the setting sun.

* * *

_At Naruto's House_

Naruto took a much needed shower and quickly turned into Kitsune, needing to get rid of that pain in an area in his left chest.

* * *

_Hokage's Office_

The mood that Kitsune was in made the Hokage think not to ask questions and just do as the ANBU requested. He gave the ANBU a single-person A-rank mission, and Kitsune disappeared into the night.

Right after he left, Kakashi came in to hand his mission report in. He also had some questions to ask the Hokage.

He described how Kitsune had appeared and acted a little out of character on their mission. He thought he caught a small twinkle in the Hokage's eye when he described Kitsune's behaviors, but the Hokage just nodded and dismissed him, leaving Kakashi with even more questions.

* * *

_Dawn_

Kakashi sighed. He had been just asked to report for ANBU duty. He sent some messages a long to his genins that they could take the day off, and he became Ookami to head to the ANBU hq.

Kitsune was emanating a bad mood, so the rest of the assembled team knew not to question him. They all left on their SS mission wordlessly.

_

* * *

_

_Evening_

The team had gotten back relatively unscathed and Kitsune had left in his mini storm cloud to hand in his report. Kakashi overheard his other team members speaking in low voices, probably thinking no one was listening.

"He's been in such a bad mood since _that_."

"Yeah, we should just leave him alone, still just a kid, you know. Might be a little too much pressure."

Kakashi thought it over. Something seemed a little fishy here. And Kitsune was a kid? He was as tall as Kakashi, and his build didn't seem like that of a kid's.

He decided to look into things a little.

* * *

_ANBU HQ_

When Kakashi wanted to know something, he knew were to find it. He had pulled in a huge favor from Ibiki (everyone seems to do that) to have unlimited access to the ANBU files. He searched until he found the highly classified file on Kitsune.

What he read surprised him so much, he dropped the file and had to scrabble to reclaim the papers inside.

'Kitsune's only 12? He joined at age 5.' Kakashi suddenly remembered when he had been in the Hokage's office years ago and an ANBU with a fox mask had come in. He had just been retiring from his ANBU post then, but if Kitsune was 5 at the time, why did he look like he did now, 7 years later? Even more fishy was that he could find no record on Kitsune ever going to the Wave Country for a mission. What exactly had been going on? Kakashi couldn't find anymore information in the file and left.

Ibiki came in after Kakashi to make sure everything was back in place when he saw a stray sheet on the floor. He picked it up and noticed it was on Kitsune. 'Oh, NO! I told Kitsune I would keep every one of his files as safe as I could!'

It had been hard, but it had been worth all the help he had gotten from Kitsune in getting out of some tough situations. Ibiki knew who Kitsune really was, and had been asked to help keep the secret.

Now, Kakashi (Kakashi of all people!!!) had found some information. It had been extremely lucky that he had missed this file on the floor, as it contained Kitsune's birth date, blood type, and other identifying factors. Ibiki breathed a sigh of relief. At least the damage hadn't been as bad as he though. He contacted Kitsune to break him the news.

* * *

Naruto was his cheery self the next day. He was busy comparing training results with Sasuke when Sakura arrived, but Sasuke denied ever doing so. 'Yeesh…why am I so uncool around Naruto? Is he rubbing off on me?'

Kakashi arrived to the sound of Sakura talking to Naruto.

"Are you sure you're ok? You looked a little sad when the crowd left you out."

"It's ok. I bet they just didn't recognize me. I'm fine." Naruto grinned cheekily. "Say, you wanna go on a date with me?"

Sakura recoiled instantly. "Of course not."

Naruto drooped with a crestfallen face and then noticed Kakashi. "HELLO KAKASHI-SENSEI!!!"

Kakashi dropped down to take them all to the mission office so they could complete more normal missions.

He was thinking it over, things were starting to come together, but he wasn't exactly sure of what it was right now.

Kakashi thought while Naruto botched up all the missions and created more trouble. He still hadn't thought of anybody who could have fit the description he had compiled for whoever Kitsune was by the end of the day.

* * *

Kitsune walked into a forest clearing far from anyone else. He had asked for the evening off, and it had been granted readily by the Hokage who still sensed an air of disgruntlement around him. By this time, he had found out what had happened and knew what Kitsune/Naruto was going through, so he complied with Kitsune's requests.

Kitsune flicked one kodachi against his right hand and the other across his left. He slammed both hands on the forest floor to summon a bird and a fox. He began to spar with them for many hours, not stopping for a break to catch his breath.

It was six hours after he had started when the Hokage stumbled on him while taking a walk. Kitsune was looking pretty badly. He had cuts all over his body, some actually very deep. There were so many, even the Kyuubi's power was having a hard time to keep up. Kitsune collapsed, but got right back up, sparring and sparring, never stopping.

Suddenly, Kitsune's mask shattered and a blow to his stomach brought him to his knees. His genjutsu had fallen to reveal his usual size and appearance. The Hokage decided that it was time to intervene. He told the fox and the hawk they could leave on Naruto's best interests. They gratefully accepted his order, as they had been wanting to leave as soon as Kitsune's wounds had started looking serious, but Kitsune had made them stay to continue fighting with him.

Kitsune lay gasping on the floor, his eyes dull. His breathing was ragged, and he seemed ready to pass out. The Hokage was taking Kitsune's jacket off to treat some of his deep cuts, but Kitsune pulled away to try to do it himself. However, his hand only glowed a sickly green as he attempted to heal himself.

Sarutobi said, "You're not Kitsune right now. You're mask is off. Just be Naruto right now." He was deeply worried about what was happening to the young genius who was forced to live a double life.

Kitsune was too tired to care, so he let the old man bandage him up. When the Hokage was done, Naruto sat up, but immediately slammed back down on the ground, wincing from pain. He untied the hitai-ate that had been tied around his waist. It was drenched in blood from the last blow he had received.

Sarutobi gasped as he hadn't seen that wound from the hitai-ate covering it up. He unrolled more bandages to help Naruto out.

Naruto sat up against a tree. His breathing was still very ragged, and his eyes seemed to have dulled even more. The Hokage was concerned. "Did I forget something? Are you still hurt?" The old man moved to sit next to the boy.

Something inside Naruto seemed to break. Tears began sliding down his face. "Yeah. It hurts too much here." Naruto brought a shaky hand up to where his heart was. His tears became sobs and Sarutobi let the blonde boy cry into his shoulder all that had been pent up inside him for years.

* * *

Kitsune and Naruto were back on duty the next day, seemingly restored to their normal selves. The Hokage reasoned that the sudden outbreak of intense emotion last night had probably released all the psychological tension inside, and Naruto was probably feeling much more relaxed because of it.

Naruto was even more cheery than his normal self and the whole team felt a lot more upbeat even though Naruto was still a klutz. Kakashi was almost afraid when he was thinking about how the blonde would react to him entering the team in the Chunnin exam. 'Here goes nothing.'

Sure enough, Kakashi found himself flat on his back, seeing stars when he notified the team. He had been bowled over by a massive hug and after releasing his sensei, Naruto was grinning and jumping around like an idiot. "I'M CLOSER TO BECOMING HOKAGE!!! YES!!!"

"Dobe, shut up. You're too loud." Sasuke said, but he also had a mild smile on his face.

Sakura was a little unsure of what it meant, but the happiness was infectious and she started to grin too. Kakashi stood up a little unsteadily and announced that he would like to have spars with them one on one as a little training for the exam. Naruto smiled.

* * *

It was Naruto's turn first, so he was wondering a bit if he should go all out or act like an utter idiot. He compromised between the two choices and decided to pretend that he had been training a lot by himself and he had improved a bit.

Naruto stood facing Kakashi. Sakura shouted, "GO!"

For a few milliseconds, they both contemplated the best move they should use, and Kakashi began forming hand seals. Naruto had a sly grin on his face. When Kakashi was forming the second one, he saw Naruto disappear from his spot.

The third seal brought them up to a moment where Naruto was standing beside him. Kakashi had no time to move and he felt a sharp pressure in his abdominal area. He caught a glance of both Naruto's hands glowing blue, but Naruto had already finished sweeping by him.

Sasuke and Sakura's eyes widened. They had not been able to catch Naruto's movements, but Kakashi had teetered and crashed to the ground.

Naruto looked a little concerned. 'Eh… was a 10-point seal too much?' He had developed a new seal that used two five-element seals combined and locked together to provide a seal triple in strength.

He cautiously approached Kakashi. Kakashi straightened up to take a look at his midsection. There was a complex seal sitting there now. It was in exactly the right place to completely shut out all of his chakra from his use, but he noticed that it was a clever one that allowed chakra to flow out, exhausting the person of their chakra supply while denying them access to it.

"Oooh…Kakashi-sensei, was that a bit too much?" Naruto was standing next to him, staring at the seal too.

"BAKA! Just because someone can't use their chakra," Kakashi caught Naruto with a powerful kick to the stomach, "doesn't mean they can't fight still."

Naruto decided that taijutsu was actually probably the thing he could've "improved" on, and he almost matched some of Kakashi's blows. Kakashi analyzed his movements and nodded his head on the inside. Naruto had improved a bit.

Naruto's spar aside after he was knocked out by a blow that sent him smashed into a tree, Kakashi tried to undo the seal to be able to spar with all his skills with the rest of the team.

He frowned. The seal was proving to be a particularly ingenious one which no matter how hard he tried, just would not yield to his efforts. He had Sasuke and Sakura providing chakra to help him, but it wasn't coming off. Who knew Naruto could do such a thing? He sighed. All they could do now would be to wait for the blonde to wake up.

Naruto sighed and decided to go back to sleep in the grass, but someone was shaking him violently. "Ge'off." He mumbled, but a particularly hard knock to his head made his eyes pop open and realize where he was.

He pushed Sakura and her threatening fist away to sit up. Kakashi had given up on the seal and now asked Naruto, "What _is_ this?"

Naruto grinned. "You like it?" The Shyakugan flashed for a miniscule fraction of a second in his eyes, too fast for anyone to see, and he confirmed that Kakashi probably had enough chakra still inside him to stay conscious for a while longer.

Kakashi grumbled. "Just tell me how to get it off, and were you learned it from." '…so I can make whoever taught you that regret you using it on me…'

Naruto laughed. "Kakashi-sensei can't get it off?" he asked with an innocent face. His grin widened into a smirk "Or is my seal to hard to undo?"

The team couldn't believe it. Naruto do something Kakashi couldn't figure out? Impossible! But Kakashi knew that it was probably him, no matter how hard they tried to deny it. He was a master of sealing jutsus, but he had never seen anything like this before.

"Um, fine…but …this might hurt a bit…" While Kakashi was still thinking, Naruto's fingertips flared blue, interlocked, and plunged into the seal on Kakashi. Kakashi was caught by surprise, and it felt like kunai were embedded in him. He saw the seal fading, but a lot of his chakra had already leaked out of his system. Then he felt something cool against his forehead.

Naruto had dumped a bucket of water on him. "Better?" He asked with a mischievious grin. Kakashi groaned. He stayed on his back and said "You guys can have the day off."

Sasuke stalked off with Sakura behind. Naruto had disappeared, and Kakashi decided reading would probably help him ignore the pain.

He whipped out a familiar orange book, but it was whisked away and replaced by an energy bar. "The seal does more damage than you think, ya know." Naruto had come back with the now medically specialized Haku towed behind.

"Haku says you should eat that and with this…" Naruto lit a fire with the fuel as—"NO!" Kakashi tried to grab for the precious book, but he felt a wave of dizziness wash over him before he passed out.

"Oh dear…I think he over did it." Naruto and Haku hauled Kakash over to the hospital with the Icha Icha book left behind and burned to a crisp. "It's not healthy to read those anyway." **(A/N: see footnote)** Naruto smiled. His day was going quite nicely.

* * *

Kakashi found himself on his back being taken care of yet again. He pushed himself back up, but Haku pushed him back down while her hand glowed green, healing the giant, nasty-looking bruise that was where Naruto's seal had been placed before. "You're actual chakra system has been damaged. Never thought Naruto could do that before, right?"

Kakashi turned to see Kitsune there too. He sighed. It looked like all he could do nowadays was to look pathetic in front of his superiors. "I still can't figure out how he got so good at seals."

Kitsune surprised him by saying "He looks like he's not the type of guy to be good at anything, but apparently he is. Only problem is that he only knows one or two. I talked to him when he came to visit. Seals must be in the blood…" Both of them stopped for a second to remember the Yondaime's last act.

"Well, I got to go." Kitsune stood up, but his jacket caught on the seat. 'Uh oh.' His low-backed shirt revealed the two five-element seals placed right near his shoulder blades. Kakashi's eyes widened, but Kitsune had swept his jacket up and disappeared out the door.

Kakashi was extremely frustrated. 'EVEN MORE QUESTIONS NOW!?!?' Haku felt a bit of an inner smirk rise up as she watched Kakashi's befuddled expression.

* * *

**A/N: Here ends the already written material. I'll probably be updating in a few days, but only because I've already written over half of the next chapter (each chapter is roughly around 10 pages in Word, size 12, and I'm onpage 7!) It's the Chuunin exam next!**

**(footnote)**

**Due to _Knyght_'s hilarious suggestion, I've included an extra scene. Yay! **

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* * *

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_flashback_

One day, Naruto decided to visit Kyuubi.

_Naruto's inner world_

"Hi Kyuu!"

**Hey Kit, why are you in here?**

"Um, well I was just wondering what you do in here all the time. It must be boring!"

**Boring is an understatement.**

Naruto made a sad face, "I'm sorry, Kyuubi-nii."

**Awww, it's ok. It's not your fault. It just gets a bit dull sitting in this cage all day...**

Naruto's face brightened up into his I-HAVE-AN-IDEA!!! face. "I know! I'll try to get you something to do!" Naruto snapped back to the outside world.

_3 days later and back in Naruto's Inner World_

"Kyuuuuuuuubiiiii! Guess what! Guess what!" Naruto was bouncing with excitement.

**Uhhh...You just ate 30 bowls of ramen?**

Naruto thought for a moment and ticked off on his fingers. "Um, 32 actually...but that's not why I'm excited! I got something for you to do!" Naruto whipped out a book from behind his back. "I know that you pretty much know everything there is to know in informational scrolls, but this is Fiction! You should try it!"

**OK! What book is that?**

Naruto paused. "Actually, I don't know, I nicked it off Wolf Dude-San!! I've seen him read it so many times, so it must be good!" Naruto handed Kyuubi the book which was incredibly tiny for the huge Demon Fox.

**Thanks Kit.** Kyuubi enlarged it with a special jutsu and began to read...

_Meanwhile_

Kakashi ran around frantically, searching under all the clothes on his floor, in the pockets of the clothes on the floor, and everywhere he could possibly imagine his "precious" was. "AGHHHHh, noooo, WHERE IS IT?!? I can't live without my precious."

After checking everywhere ten times, Kakashi collapsed on the floor and sobbed for a moment. "Well, maybe I shouldn't panic..." He jumped back up and ran to the nearest bookstore. "Hello! I _NEED_ a copy of Icha Icha Paradise, please!"

_Back in Naruto's Inner World_

Kyuubi's nosebleed had slowed from an explosion to dripping, but his eyes were still glued to the page.

"Kyuubi-niii, why can't you tell me what it's about?!"

**Not now, I need to read this again.**

"It's your 15th time already!" Naruto was fed up with Kyuubi ignoring him for so long and decided to take things into his own hands. Whoosh! The huge book was shrunk back to its regular size and Naruto grabbed it as it fell, rushing out of his inner world.

**Nooooooooo. COME BACK NARUTO!**

_Outside_

Naruto flipped through the pages and caught glimpses of things he never wanted to see again. "ARGH, WHAT IS THIS NASTY STUFF?!?" Naruto quickly ran to return the pilfered book.

_Some time later_

"YES, my baby, I knew you would come back to me." Kakashi hugged the book to his chest as tears of joy ran down his face. He had been in Icha Icha withdrawal for the past few days, the bookstore having been out of stock of the runaway bestseller.

_More time later in Naruto's Inner World  
_

Naruto smiled happily. After going cold turkey on his addiction to the Icha Icha _filth_ as Naruto thought of it, Kyuubi seemed to be recovering, and Naruto was ecstatic that he had someone to talk to again. "Yay! Tell me more stories, Kyuu!"

Kyuubi sighed. **Ok, Kit. **He launched off onto a long narrative while thinking wistfully about the few days he had with that wonderful little orange book.

* * *

Hehe, did you guys like it? I thought it would be funny to include, and it was really fun to write. Ok, watch out for my next post in the next week (hopefully less)!


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.**

Yay for fast writing. I finished this a lot faster than I thought I could, so here's the next chapter!

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Naruto was opening his fridge on the Saturday morning the next day when he heard a stealthy sliding opening of one of his windows. His hand was grasped on one of the knives he kept in there for security (you never knew what happened), but he relaxed when he analyzed the sounds of the movements and realized that it was Kakashi.

Instead, he brought out some milk and headed back to his table where his instant ramen was sitting. But it wasn't here anymore. He saw an apple there instead. "NANI!?!?! I don't own any fruit." He was keeping up his stupid Naruto act which actually was quite entertaining.

He saw Kakashi tossing his ramen out the window. "AGH!" He dove for it, but of course, it was too late. "Ninjas need more varied diets, Naruto. Eat the apple. I'm telling to you to as a sensei who cares about his student's health."

"What!?!? I've been eating ramen for breakfast since I was 4!" Kakashi didn't know whether to laugh or groan. This ramen obsession was worse than he thought. "Well, I'll train with you if you eat it…"

"OSSU!" Naruto wolfed down the apple, but he also munched another bowl of ramen when he finished the fruit. 'I guess there's no helping it then…" Kakashi sighed.

He led the now hyper Naruto to a nice sunny training area. "I'm going to teach you some more about seals, since you…" Kakashi glanced down at his midsection. "Yeah…"

Naruto grinned sheepishly. "Sorry, Kakashi-sensei. I didn't know it was that harmful. I just twiddled around with the five-element seal with both hands. You're the first person I tried it on."

Kakashi was astounded by how nonchalantly Naruto was talking about the 5-element seal. "Naruto, when and where did you learn that seal?"

"Uh…when I was smaller…don't really remember. Oh, yeah. Remember when I was at ANBU with you? I looked inside the library. I by accidentally tore off a piece of a scroll and kept it when I was looking through some…"

Kakashi was a little skeptical, but let it blow by. "Alright, the past is the past. Show me what you know."

Naruto let the seal form easily on his fingertips, glowing blue nicely. Kakashi was a bit surprised at how easily Naruto could activate a seal. He lifted up his hitai-ate to help him analyze Naruto's skills a little bit easier.

'Wow…' Kakashi saw signs that Naruto's potential in seals was probably far greater than his own.

Naruto interlocked his fingers and formed the right hand position for the 10-point seal. "See, Kakashi-sensei!"

Kakashi hastily backed away from the seal he had had an unpleasant encounter with. "Yes, very good. Let's get you started on more of the basics, so you'll be able to understand and implement Fuuin no Jutsus better."

They spent the morning working on it, and when Kakashi left, Naruto smiled. 'Looks like I'm going to start improving on my one weak spot now, ne Kyuubi?'

**I'm trying to sleep here, Kit…**

**

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**

'Gomen-nesai, Kyuubi.' Naruto grinned and walked off to become Kitsune for more missions. Life was good…

Naruto found the next few days to be very relaxing and pleasant. All was peaceful in Konoha, and a shortage of missions for the ANBU resulted in him having much more free time.

"Yo, Hayate, Genma. I've got some free time. Want to get something to eat?" Kitsune queried the two who had just come back from a mission.

"Sure, why not?" Hayate and Genma followed him to a nearby restaurant.

"I've got something interesting to tell you guys." Kitsune's face dissolved to reveal Naruto. "Sandaime wants me to continue with the genin team and do the Chuunin Exam. Funny, right?"

"Yeah. It'll be great, but you're a jounin. Doesn't that make you ineligible?"

"Nope. Naruto is taking the exam. Kitsune is the jounin." He winked at them. Kitsune had made a lot of friends with the jounins and ANBU.

"Hehe…I get it. And guess what? I'm going to be the examiner for the third test and if they're needed, the preliminary matches." Hayate coughed and smiled.

"Awesome-ttebayo!" Naruto gave him a high-five, but he became Kitsune again. "Don't you dare let anything slip…" And, Hayate nodded his head fervently before coughing again.

Genma smiled, chewing on his senbon. It was very amusing to see the prankster Naruto he had known from years ago and serious ANBU Kitsune switching places so much.

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"I'M NOT GOING TO LOSE TO ANY OF YOU IN HERE! THAT'S A PROMISE-TTEBAYO!" The other Konoha rookies winced as Naruto shouted his challenge and the whole room silenced and looked straight at them.

"What did you do, Naruto? You just turned them all against us. How troublesome…" Shikamaru rolled his eyes at him, but a silver-haired Konoha examinee came up.

"Since you guys look like you're going to have a bit of trouble with…well just about everyone in this room, I'll help you cute little rookies out. My name's Kabuto." Kabuto held up a deck of curious looking cards. "Anything you want to know?"

They talked to him, and he showed them some information. 'Pretty nice guy…if you can call a suspicious looking _snake_ nice…' Naruto's eyes darkened. This guy looked just as untrustworthy as the aforementioned slithering creature.

**Better keep an eye on him.**

'Yeah…well, here comes some Sound nin. Let's see what he's made out of.' They watched as the threatening looking nin took a swipe at Kabuto who leapt back to dodge it. Everybody was surprised when they saw him collapse to cough up blood. 'Whoopdedoo…more annoying people to deal with…' Naruto moved forward to see if he could help the other genin.

The whole room had gone into an uproar by now. Suddenly, a voice boomed out "EVERYBODY SHUT UP!" An imposing figure was standing in the front now. "I AM—"

"Morino Ibiki…yes, yes we know. Can you give me hand here? Or is the only thing you're good at is pingpong?" Naruto quipped. Ibiki had liked the club so much, he had actually stayed in it ever since Naruto and Anko had been forced to create it to cover up.

"WHO DARES SAY THAT?" Ibiki saw Naruto supporting Kabuto. His tone softened. "Oh…it's you shortie." He watched amused as Naruto's ears practically started to steam.

Kabuto looked at Naruto's rapidly reddening face and decided to move off. The sooner the better. "Eh, I'm fine now, Naruto-kun. Arigatou."

The sound of Kabuto's voice snapped the blonde out of it and he calmed back down. "Oh, ok. You're welcome." He looked around to see all the other Konoha genin staring at him. "What?"

He was saved from curious questions when Ibiki ordered them to sit down to take the written exam. Naruto found him next to Hinata. He gave her a big grin and said "Good luck, Hinata!" She almost fainted, and Naruto just thought she was a bit weird.

Although Naruto/Kitsune were very sharp and noticed many things, Naruto really was oblivious when it came to detecting crushes on himself, maybe others, but he was definitely blind to any signs of anybody, no matter how obvious, that were related to him.

Naruto understood nature of the test immediately, but decided to play it dumb. There would be plenty of time later to be smart. He opted to take a sit there and look like he was sweating over it. He even denied the help that Hinata offered him for "moral reasons."

'Finally, the last question. I was starting to get a little bored.' Naruto suppressed a yawn as Ibiki explained how the last question would work. 'Yadeedadeeda. We know already…stop acting like that.'

Naruto raised his hand shakily as part of his act, but then, he got a wicked idea. He slammed his palm back onto the table. "Of course I'm not going to quit!!! I don't care about anything that pingpong addict says. I'm DEFINITELY NOT GOING TO GIVE UP!!!"

Ibiki's eyes bulged and a vein started twitching, but he still thought how it was interesting that Naruto could get rid of anybody's doubt. He sure was such an interesting guy.

Suddenly, a bundle crashed through the window and a banner unfurled, revealing the next examiner. Naruto almost died when he saw who it was. 'Kami-sama…what have I done?'

Anko stepped up and shouted "ALRIGHT!!! LET'S GET GOING TO THE 2nd EXAM! I'M READY TO CUT THIS GROUP DOWN TO LESS THAN HALF! Oh, hey shortie!"

Ibiki whispered, "Bad move…" just as Naruto had enough and leapt on to the table screaming "I'M NOT SHORT!!!"

* * *

All the other genin had been curious as to why Naruto knew the examiners so he gave them an altered version of the ping pong story. Everybody seemed satisfied with his excuse and Team 7 was left to fill in their forms and receive their scrolls.

They walked to their gate. Once inside, Naruto started acting like he needed to go to the bathroom. He ran off into the bushes and activated his Shyakugan. 'Yes. There's a group with the scroll we need…oops.' He noticed someone sneaking up on him and decided he had to get "caught."

He let them bind him without much of a struggle and watched as they headed toward his team in a henge of him.

**Are they amateur or what? Even Sasuke will figure it out in a second. You could do better when you were 4. Yeesh…kids these days.**

Naruto smiled at Kyuubi's comment. Sure enough, he heard a flurry of action. Sasuke ran into the bushes to find and untie him. "Dobe, be more careful."

"Sorry, Sasuke." The team headed off again. What Naruto wasn't expecting though was when a giant snake appeared out of nowhere when he had split up with the others and swallowed him whole. There was only one person he could think of that could summon one that big—Orochimaru.

He sat down inside the snake, and tapped his seal for a communicator to come out.

"Anko. Code Red. We have a high alert emergency. Requesting back up. It's Orochimaru." There was static for a few seconds, but Anko replied.

"Yeah. We just found evidence, but backup can't reach you in less than 45 minutes. I'm on my way, but not likely to reach you in time for engaging enemy. You have permission to use full power for Code Red."

Naruto hooked up his communicator his ear to have his hands free. 'Kyuu, help me out here, 'kay?' The response he felt was a good portion of the Kyuubi's chakra flooding his system and mixing with his own. Naruto preformed a Tajuu Kage Bunshin no jutsu and the snake, not able to handle the strain literally exploded from it.

Naruto rushed toward the sound of fighting. 'Oh gosh. This is bad.'

Sakura and Sasuke were now frozen from a wave of incredibly strong killer intent. he watched as Sasuke finally overcame it enough to jam a kunai into his leg to disperse and completely to allow him to force both himself and Sakura to safety.

Naruto moved to help them, but something was stopping him. He glanced down. 'Ew...yuckyuckyuck.' The remains of the snake were apparently a really strong adhesive when dried. It took Naruto a good 10 minutes to get enough off so he could move again.

By that time, Sasuke was already halfway beaten to pulp. Orochimaru hurled two kunai at the Uchiha in such a way that he wouldn't have time to dodge. The Uchiha's eyes widened in horror but it turned to amazement as he saw Naruto come crashing in and snatching them from the air.

"Yo, Sasuke stand down," Naruto growled.

"What are you doing, dobe?!? He'll beat you to a bloody mess!"

"SASUKE, I _said_ stand down."The orange-clad ninja spun around to glare at the other. Sasuke had never seen Naruto look like that before and quickly decided to retreat back to the trees. When he turned back around, he saw that Orochimaru had summoned yet another snake.

It lunged for Naruto, but he stood and released the barrier on the Kyuubi's chakra that was floating around in his system. The fox chakra started altering his physical features, enlarging his nails to claws, his canines to fangs, and his eyes turned red with slit pupils. He dodged the snake easily, leapt on top, and hurled a storm of kunai at Orochimaru who licked his lips gleefully. 'So this is the Nine-tails gaki.' He was pretty good and putting up more of a fight than the Uchiha.

Orochimaru sidestepped the projectiles and was beside Naruto in an instant, slashing him horizontally across his ribcage, but a log took the hit. Naruto stood on a nearby tree, panting. He had been a nanosecond in time to replace himself. 'Dang, I can't compete with his speed like this.'

Without a second thought, he stripped off his orange jumpsuit and flung it at his Uchiha teammate. Sasuke caught it, but was immediately slammed to the floor in a new crater by the weight of it. "What the heck, dobe?!?!" What had Naruto put in it?!? Sakura looked over at it too and her eyes widened when she saw "50 pound weights?!?" There were 6 of them spread out as flexible sheets on the inside.

"Yeah, they're expensive, so hold onto it for me, alright?"Sakura gasped. His outfit looked almost the same as Kitsune's as when he had been training with them. It had a low-backed shirt and loose pants for freer movement. She saw two five-element seals near his shoulder blades but didn't know what they were for.

Naruto dodged more kunai and saw Orochimaru's fingers flare blue to stop him from using the Kyuubi chakra. He swung around in a blur with his own 5-element seal to meet and cancel out Orochimaru's.

Orochimaru laughed. The kid was turning out to be much better than the Uchiha. He moved even faster to attack Sasuke and Sakura with more kunai. 'NO!' Fast as Naruto was, he knew he needed something extra. His hand moved in a blue blur to his back as he leaped from the tree, and Sasuke and Sakura saw something brown flash out to knock away the weapons. Blood splattered all over them.

Naruto was standing facing them, one wing extended and the other flapped open as Naruto unearthed a kunai out of the seal in his back, causing more blood to flow. He had unlocked one of his wings with the seal and stabbed the other with his kunai to use a blood release. He then opened his eyes to reveal the Shyakugan in both.

Sasuke and Sakura were amazed. They had no idea that Naruto had a secret as big as this. Sakura reached out to see if he was real, but her hand touched thin air when Naruto rushed to cover the ground to thrust a 10-pt seal into Orochimraru's midsection. It was a variation on the one he had put on Kakashi as it sucked out chakra at 10x the speed.

However, Orochimaru melted into a puddle of mud. The real one was behind Naruto now. 'This kid is more surprising every second. If that seal had been placed on me, even I would've been injured quite a bit.' He grabbed Naruto's hands as he slammed him against the tree and pinned them above his head. He smirked and sunk his fangs into Naruto's neck. Naruto screamed in agony.

"NARUTO!" Sakura and Sasuke ran toward him as he collapsed. 'Hmm...maybe a back-up would be nice too.' Orochimaru chuckled evilly and swatted Sakura aside, biting Sasuke as well. Then, laughing gleefully, he left the little group. Sakura slowly got up, wincing a bit and saw both of her teammates on the ground. They were clearly both in a lot of pain and she noticed strange markings on their necks where they had been bitten.

The one on Sasuke looked like 3 twisted commas, and Naruto's looked almost exactly the same. Sakura inspected it more closely and realized that the 3 commas on Naruto were rotating in the opposite direction from Sasuke's.

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_Naruto's Inner World_

Naruto looked up at Kyuubi. "It hurts so much, Kyuu."

**Get over here now!** Kyuubi scooped up Naruto and sunk his teeth into the cursed seal. Naruto howled in pain, and Kyuubi hated himself for hurting him so much, but it had to be done.

When Naruto came to, he saw the Kyuubi looking concerned.

**How do you feel?** **I was able to counter the part of the seal that would make you lose your mind to Orochimaru, but it's still going to have some very powerful effects on you. Stay in here for a few more minutes.**

**

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**

Sakura had brought the two into a space between some tree roots and had set up defenses around the area. Both were running high fevers and the feathers on Naruto's wings, originally a light brown with a healthy sheen, were getting duller. She was pretty sure it wasn't normal.

Suddenly, three Sound-nin appeared. "Hand over your teammates and we won't hurt you."

"If you want them, come and get them," Sakura snarled back at them, but the sound-nin didn't seem fooled by her bravado. They sprung her first trap and tried to continue, but a trap from above was triggered, and they were almost crushed by a falling log. However, they dodged it and kept coming. Sakura readied herself with a kunai in hand.

Unbeknownst to Sakura and her attackers, dark purple chakra was rising from Sasuke and black from Naruto. It was swirling off of them to create spiraling patterns.

Sakura was being taunted by the female, and she decided that she had to do whatever she could to help her teammates' chances of survival. She sliced off her hair and stood up, delivering a devastating kick filled with rage that crashed down onto the Sound kunoichi. "Don't look down on me!" The Sound kunoichi collapsed unconscious and Sakura turned toward the other two.

Dosu countered her attack and swung his arm piece up to assault her with an attack on her inner ear. Sakura dropped to her knees and coughed up blood, but got up again, directing her attack at the other nin in the tree. He repelled her with a blast of air from the holes in his hands, and Sakura was slammed against a tree. Teeth gritted with determination, she got up again, but an attack from behind with kunai almost impaled her. However, a familiar figure batted them away with his own blade.

Naruto was standing shakily with his wings sealed away again, and his orange jumpsuit pulled on again to avoid having Kitsune's identity compromised. "Don't worry. I'll help you out!" he gave her a weak thumbs up, but just then, Sasuke got up, a strange pattern spreading over his arms and face. He walked over in a storm of purple chakra.

Naruto fell again as Sasuke's cursed seal seemed to trigger his own. An enormous amount of pain coursed through his body, driving back his rational mind to let the seal take over and make him succumb to animalistic rage. A mirror image of the markings on Sasuke snaked across Naruto's features.

Both stalked toward Dosu, acting as a devastating tag team that quickly put Dosu and then Zaku out of action. Both seemed unharmed by any attacks that Dosu and Zaku had tried to launch on them.

But, while Sasuke stopped there as he struggled inwardly to suppress the influence of the seal and eventually falling unconscious, Naruto's pain filled mind continued on its rampage even after the seal receded, turning on anyone it saw, which was at this point Sakura. She stood stock still in terror.

Suddenly, Naruto froze, unable to move.

"I guess we made it just in time. This looks troublesome..." Shikamaru settled lazily on his heels while holding Naruto still with the Kagemane. On the inside, however, he was worrying quite a bit. He recognized the look in Naruto's eyes as terrible animal pain. What could've driven him into a state like this?

Naruto was visibly trembling, trying to shake off the foreign control that Shikamaru had on him. With a roar, he managed to slowly move his arms. Shikamaru was now sweating from the effort and quickly assessed the situation. "Sakura! I know this is hard for you, but you need to knock out Naruto right now!"

Sakura looked at Shikamaru with wide eyes. "Wh-what?"

"NOW!" Naruto was gaining back control of his body and looked poised for a bloody rampage.

Suddenly, a fist smacked into one of Naruto's temples. His eyes flashed between surprise and rage before he blanked out and sank into unconsciousness. Ino stood panting next to Naruto from running to catch up to Shikamaru after they had heard noises from the conflict from Team 7 and the Sound shinobi.

"There, forehead girl. That wasn't so hard." Ino smirked at Sakura, who surprisingly didn't rise to the bait. Ino was a bit confused, but didn't think too much of it, as Shikamaru suddenly slumped to the forest floor.

"Shikamaru!" Chouji burst into the clearing.

Both Ino and Chouji scrambled over to there fallen teammate. "Nghh, how troublesome. Holding Naruto was way more exhausting than I thought it would be." Ino and Chouji looked relieved that Shikamaru was ok.

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_Naruto's Inner World_

"AGHHH AGHH AHHHHHH." Naruto was crying from the pain, and wave after wave of black chakra made the water level rise up.

**KIT! KIT! **Kyuubi could only watch on as Naruto collapsed, sinking into the depths of the dark water.

* * *

Sakura sighed. Team 10 had left when Shikamaru had recovered from the exhaustion, and she was left alone to tend to her still unconscious teammates.

She wrung a cloth in the stream nearby and replaced it on Naruto's forehead. Sasuke's fever had gone down a few hours ago, and Naruto's was coming down, but it was still staying too high to be healthy.

Sasuke stirred. "Sasuke-kun?!" Sakura was instantly by his side.

"Nghhh." Sasuke blinked his eyes open and looked around blearily. He sat up and instantly winced at a throb of pain coming from the cursed seal.

"Sasuke-kun! Are you alright?" Sakura gave him a concerned look.

"Yeah, Naruto's still not up?" Sasuke looked over at Naruto who was trembling and covered by a sheen of sweat.

"No, he's been out the whole time, but his fever's just started to come down. What are we going to do?"

Sasuke was suddenly hit by a memory. "Wait! When Naruto was fighting Orochimaru...Is he...Kits—"

Sakura interrupted him. "Yeah, I think so. But I think we should keep it a secret for him. I was thinking while you were unconscious, and I think that he would have told us if he had wanted us to know."

Sasuke nodded slowly, slightly surprised by Sakura's insight and calmer attitude.

A bush rustled nearby and both teammates were instantly on alert. When a figure stepped out, Sakura launched a kunai at it, and Sasuke released a handful of shuriken.

"Woah! It's just me, Kabuto, remember?"

"Sorry! We thought that you were an enemy team." Sakura visibly relaxed as the person came into view after dodging the miscellaneous weapons. Sasuke was still wary, but had stopped drawing out more shuriken.

"Is that Naruto-kun over there? I know some healing techniques. Would you like me to try to help him?" Sakura looked at Sasuke who thought about the proposition. When he nodded, Kabuto leaned over Naruto and put a hand glowing green to his forehead...

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**A/N: Dundundun...sorry about the cliffie, but I wanted to cut it off there for the next chapter. I'm pretty sure I'm not going to be able to finish the next chapter for tomorrow, and I still need to fully plan out what's going to happen, so I might not chug out the next chapter until a handful of days from now. Hope you like the story so far!**


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.**

Whew, I'm sorry about the long wait. Real life and computer malfunctions messed me up a bit. This one was a bit rushed, so tell me about any mistakes (I'll be proofreading again too later). Anyway, hope you enjoy this chap!

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Kabuto's healing chakra settled onto Naruto's forehead, bathing his face in a green glow. Naruto shuddered, his body twitching as Kabuto closed his eyes and concentrated. 'I guess the seal is really strong, this is harder than I expected. What have you done this time, Orochimaru-sama?'

Kabuto searched inside Naruto until he found the roiling back chakra gathering towards the center of Naruto's abdomen. 'Ugh.' Sakura and Sasuke watched as a few beads of sweat trickled down the older shinobi's forehead. Kabuto pushed at the chakra, forcing it away in Naruto's system. With his knowledge about Orochimaru's seals and some luck, he managed to push away most of it back into the cursed seal.

"Phew!" Kabuto opened his eyes again and sat back on his heels. "All done. Naruto-kun should be alright now."

"Thank you, Kabuto-san!" Sakura looked relieved at Naruto's easier breathing. "His fever's already going down much faster."

* * *

_Naruto's Inner World_

Kyuubi looked on as Naruto was sinking deeper and deeper into the dark water. **KIT!** He growled and tried to reach out from the bars of his prison to Naruto, but his fur was stung and singed as it brushed against the dark water.

But, then, a green glow intruded upon the space.

**What new trickery is this?!**

However, it seemed to be lowering the water level, a lot of it backwashing out of the hallway in Naruto's mind to somewhere else.

Kyuubi looked on astounded as it lowered enough for Naruto to be lying on his back on the floor with only a few inches of clear water around him. **Kit?** Kyuubi tentatively reached out for Naruto, and this time he was able to scoop up Naruto without getting hurt by the water. He brought Naruto inside the bars and began to heal him...

* * *

"No! We can't do that to him! He's in no state!" Sakura exclaimed.

"Hn, we won't reach the tower in time, then, if that's what you want." Sasuke glowered back at his teammate.

"But, b—"

"Sakura-san, I'm sorry, but Sasuke-kun is right. You'll miss out on your chance to become chuunin if we don't carry Naruto," Kabuto butted in.

Sakura's shoulders slumped. "Well, I guess...ok." At this, Sasuke uncharacteristically jumped forward to be the first one to carry Naruto as they traveled. Slinging his teammate across his back, he jumped into the trees. Sakura and Kabuto followed suit, and soon they were traveling swiftly towards the center of the forest to their destination.

After a few hours, Sasuke began to notice something strange. Since it was Kabuto's turn to hold Naruto's limp body, Sasuke was free to jump up higher into the canopy to view where they were. 'What is going on?!' They were no closer to the tower than when they had first started out. Suspecting an outside force was working on them, Sasuke quickly slashed a highly visible X into the tree trunk with a kunai.

Sure enough, about 20 minutes later, the group encountered the marked tree.

"Hold it." Sasuke said the order just loud enough for the rest in the group to here.

"What's wrong Sasuke-kun?" Sakura gripped her knees for a moment to catch her breath.

Sasuke took Naruto's limp form from Kabuto and unceremoniously dumped it into some nearby bushes. "Sakura, stay by Naruto. Something's going to happen soon."

Sakura had a questioning look in her eyes, but took the command without a word, concerned that Sasuke looked so wary. Kabuto peered around their surroundings also. Suddenly, kunai flew at them from every direction.

Sakura threw herself to the floor instantly while Kabuto and Sasuke quickly smacked the kunai away from them with their own weapons. They all looked around for the source of the weapons. Before their eyes, black sludge appeared to coalesce, forming into menacing figures.

Sasuke pelted a handful of shuriken at them, and Sakura cheered him on as they were cut to ribbons. But then, in a grotesque rebirth, a second torso grew out of one of the strange mud-like "persons."

As one swung an arm up and forward, Kabuto yelled "Get down!" right before a double-ended kunai was launched Sasuke. Even with his fast reflexes, Sasuke had trouble dodging, and Kabuto had to dive forward, using his own body as a shield. A sickening thud signaled the embedding of a kunai into Kabuto's back.

"Kabuto-san!" Sakura made to join in the fight, but Sasuke gave her a look to tell her to stay with Naruto.

'Why am I so weak?' Sasuke ground his teeth in frustration. He attempted to activate his Sharingan at the next volley of kunai but as he tried to access his chakra, a lancing pain stabbed at his neck and back, effectively canceling out his try.

As his rigid body slammed into the dirt, Sakura cried out again, and this time, she rushed into the fray. "What are they, Kabuto-san?! They behave like genjutsu, but that kunai was real!"

Kabuto nodded grimly as he swatted away more weapons being launched at them. "Yes, Sakura-san, you are correct. The real enemy must be waiting outside and are using the genjutsu as a cover as they attack us. My guess is that they are waiting to tire us out."

An eerie laugh echoed across the clearing. Sakura swung her head around, trying to locate the source, but she couldn't seem the figure out where the sound was coming from. Instead, she supported Sasuke's back as he tried to get up again. The pain from his neck had died down again. 'Well, I guess that means I can't use my Sharingan. But what about this?'

"Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu!" As Sasuke formed the seals, he already knew something was wrong, and as he completed them to flow the fireball, the pain came searing back as strong as ever. "AHHH!" Sasuke jackknifed again and slammed to the ground yet again.

"SASUKE-KUN!" Sakura turned from one of the enemy to check on her teammate. She looked wide-eyed at his expression of horrible pain. His eyes were glassy and rolled up in his head as he passed out.

"Sakura-san, you need to concentrate!" Kabuto batted away a kunai that was an inch from embedding itself in her head.

"Hai!" Sakura and Kabuto went back-to-back over Sasuke's body to guard from the unusual threat.

"Sakura-san, this is an advanced technique, but if these really are genjutsu, there are ways to get out of them. Are you listening?" Kabuto turned his head a little to see Sakura nod in the affirmative.

"Alright, I'll guard for a second, but you need to concentrate your chakra and cut off chakra flow to your brain for a moment to break the false signals the genjutsu are giving you."

Sakura nodded. Forming a seal for concentration, she focused deep within to technique. Knowing that the sooner she got it, the better, she located the correct channel and stemmed the flow of chakra. 'Ugh.' A sickening feeling rushed to her head and she released her block. 'Let's see if this worked!'

Sakura gasped as she opened her eyes. "Yes! It worked, are you going to do it too, Kabuto-san?" She looked around the empty clearing and saw the kunai now coming from nowhere instead of the fake clones' hands.

"Mm." Kabuto dodged a few weapons. "Cover me." His face took on a look of intense concentration as he closed his eyes. He opened them again after a moment...only to find that the clones were still there. "Sakura- san..."

Sakura looked confused as well. "Oh no! They must have cast the genjutsu again." She sighed. "Well, it was worth a try."

Kabuto and Sakura both continued to try and deflect all the weapons being aimed at them.

* * *

_Naruto's Inner World_

Kyuubi sat back on his haunches as he examined Naruto. **'He should be alright. I don't know why he isn't waking up...'**

Naruto's limp form looked different somehow, tainted by an outside force. **'Oh, I see.'** Kyuubi's chakra started to bubble around him. He funneled it carefully into Naruto's prone form.

'**Just what I thought.'** Kyuubi's red chakra filled Naruto's chakra system, pushing out stagnant black chakra that had not been wiped out from the healing green light of before. After a few minutes of the impromptu chakra transfusion, Naruto coughed and blinked his eyes—which were red from the demon chakra—open.

"Ugh, Kyuu, I feel like I've been run over by a team of mad Academy 7-year olds."

**Not quite.** Kyuubi chuckled. **I'm glad that you're lucid enough to crack jokes. I've been worried for you for **_**hours**_** now.**

Naruto's eyes widened. "Hours?!"

**Yeah, I'm not sure what's going outside, but it might not be good.**

"Thanks for taking care of me, Kyuubi-nii! I think I should run now."

**Hehe, any time Naruto.** Kyuubi watched as Naruto's form flickered out of his vision as he resurfaced to the outside world...

* * *

Kabuto and Sakura were both nearing their limits. Kabuto had been surprised at Sakura's endurance, but she had pulled through with her determination, still fighting when she saw Kabuto was still going.

They were both too concentrated to notice a certain blonde sitting up in his place in the bushes. Naruto surveyed the scene thoroughly like the ANBU he was. He immediately recognized that a genjutsu had been placed around the area, and the presence of Kabuto near Sakura.

'I'll deal with him later. I hope he hasn't been causing too much trouble...Eww, those sludge-things sure are nasty.' He watched as one that had been hacked in half by Sakura had a head sliding out of its torso. 'Well, I guess I should help now.'

Naruto rose to his feet and formed a seal. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" Sakura startled and looked over to the familiar voice as she saw around a dozen Naruto clones popping into existence. "I'm ready to go!" Naruto's clones leaped forward to surround Sakura, Kabuto, and Sasuke's body in a protective circle.

Kabuto watched the new development with narrowed eyes. 'He really shouldn't be able to use chakra right now. I mean, look at Sasuke right now.' Looking closer, he noticed a few differences in Naruto's form. His body was tinged with red, and sharpened canines, lengthened nails, and frightening blood-red eyes gave away the fact that Naruto was running on demon chakra at the moment. 'Hmmm...' Kabuto decided to watch what happened next, feigning relief at the reprieve from the fighting that Naruto's clones were giving them.

Sakura gave Naruto a tired grin. "Good timing, Naruto-kun!"

Naruto was a bit surprised at the new honorific tagged onto his name, but he just winked at Sakura, suddenly leaping into a tree on the edge of the clearing.

Sakura's confused look prompted an explanation from Kabuto. "I think that Naruto-kun is attempting to take out the genjutsu from its source. He's probably trying to find the nin that have been casting it. I'm not sure how successful he will be, though...I haven't been able to pick up any idea of where they are."

"No, I believe in Naruto-kun!" Sakura's exclamation was not one based on last-chance hope, but rather a newfound trust in her teammate. She, herself, was surprised by her own outburst.

There wasn't any time for Kabuto to reply, however, as Naruto appeared again, jumping down from a branch. He shook his head. "Hmph, no luck. I need more help."

As his companions looked on, Naruto formed a seal again. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" Thirty more clones puffed into existence. Suddenly, Naruto froze. Burning _agony_ was racing through his veins, and a throbbing pain originated from the spot near his neck.

**KIT! My chakra to you has been shut down. **Kyuubi growled at the black chakra roiling in front of the bars to his cage, forming an impenetrable dark wall.

When Naruto had attempted to create more clones, the Kyuubi's chakra in his system from the transfusion had run out. Without actively drawing more from the fox himself, Naruto had tried to draw on his own chakra. The seal responded instantly, resulting in the agonizing pain.

Naruto doubled over and dry heaved a few times. "No! Naruto-kun!" Sakura reached out to him as Naruto's eyes started to roll up. He retched again and vomited on the forest floor. The incredible pain was doing strange things to his body, and Naruto vomited again. 'NO! My teammates need me!' The thought made it through the blinding, excruciating torment.

Drawing on all his skills gained from being an ANBU agent, Naruto focused his all his concentration, mentally dulling and tossing aside the pain. Although it was still there, Naruto was in control now. He straightened back up slowly, maintaining a vice-like grip on his chakra for the continued existence of his clones.

Sakura's grip on his arm finally registered to him. "Thanks, Sakura-chan!" She nodded, relieved that he looked better, and then caught a glimpse of the "bruise" near his neck.

"Naruto! The bruise spread!" Indeed, the black markings were flame red and had advanced slightly to form another layer of markings around the original.

Naruto slapped a hand over the seal and grimaced a little at the smarting pain from it, but said dismissively, "You don't need to worry about me, Sakura-chan!" He nodded at her and leapt away with his clones to continue the search.

Kabuto tapped his chin. 'Hmm...very interesting. This gaki is much stronger than Orochimaru-sama and I thought."

Suddenly, three dull thuds accompanied the sight of three bodies dropping from a tree a distance from the clearing. Instantly, the strange clone-genjutsu disappeared, and Naruto raised the scroll they needed triumphantly in the air. "YATTA! We did it."

Sakura smiled and Kabuto congratulated them. "Now all we need to do is finish the trip to the tower."

Sasuke was still unconscious, and in a strange déjà vu-like situation, the three conscious people squabbled about what to do, but this time, it was Naruto arguing not to move Sasuke, Sakura telling him they had to, and Kabuto eventually convincing them they needed to move.

Sakura moved to shoulder Sasuke's body, but her strength failed her. Naruto quickly leapt forward to take Sasuke himself. "Let me, Sakura-chan!" He winked and bounded off into the trees.

Sakura followed him, and Kabuto brought up the rear. After traveling for a while, Sakura noticed that all of Naruto's clones were still around them. "Naruto-kun, you can release the clones now, it must be really hard on you chakra-wise right now."

"Mm, I don't wanna run into any trouble now that we're so close, Sakura-chan." It was only half true. The strain on Naruto was taking its toll on Naruto, but he knew that the consequences would be more dire if he let the combined exhaustion of all the clones swamp him. The pain from the seal while he was stretching out his chakra use to the limit was grounding him quite well. 'Probably the opposite of what it's supposed to do.' Naruto snorted, and caught Kabuto looking at him. 'Hmm, I still don't know what to do about him. He's definitely a "person of interest."'

Naruto decided to leave the issue for later, and concentrated on carrying Sasuke through the forest.

* * *

_A few hours later_

The four made it to the tower without incident. Naruto panted and Sasuke almost slipped from his back. During one of their breaks on their almost non-stop run, Sakura had checked on Sasuke. It seemed that the fever had returned, but was steadily dropping again.

Naruto looked back at his teammate and saw that his breathing had evened out somewhat. 'Heh, imagine what he would say if I told him we had to carry his body like a sack of potatoes to the tower.' Naruto chuckled at the visual image of Sasuke's shocked and horrified expression.

"Well, here's my team, I'll see you later. Good luck!" Naruto was startled out his thoughts as Kabuto took his leave.

He managed a weak grin as Sakura called out her own goodbye. "Bye, Kabuto-san! Thank you for all your help."

Sakur and Naruto (plus his entourage of clones) entered through one of the open doors in the building. "Whew, we made it Sakura-chan!" As they entered, they found the room empty except for a scroll on the opposite wall. Together, they quickly deduced the meaning of the saying written on it.

"I guess, we should use the scrolls now, ne?" Naruto handed the heaven and earth scrolls to Sakura to open while he carried Sasuke bridal-style in his arms.

Sakura rolled open both of the scrolls, and with a cloud of smoke...

"KAKA-SENSEI!?"

"Yo." Kakashi's eye took in the scene with surprise and concern. "What's wrong with Sasuke? Naruto?"

Sakura prepared to explain, but Naruto beat her to saying something.

"Hey, Kaka-sensei..." His eyes were refusing to focus and he started to teeter from side to side.

Both Sakura and Kakashi looked at him with concern. "Naruto, you can let go of your clones now, you're safe." Kakashi took a step forward to help Naruto.

"Yeah, I was going to. But I'm going to faint." Naruto smiled sweetly and let his control snap.

The clones popped in clouds of smoke, and Naruto pitched forward as they disappeared.

Kakashi got to him just in time to catch and lower him slowly on his back. He removed Sasuke from Naruto's grasp.

"Follow me, Sakura." Kakashi carefully picked up the two males of his team and walked quickly out of the room. Sakura ran after him. They traveled through a few hallways and made some turns to get to the medical bay.

Kakashi lowered the boys onto hospital-style beds. "Sakura, stay here, I need to request a few things." Sakura sank down into a chair to watch over her team mates, and Kakashi disappeared into the office space of the medical area.

He had enough good sense to know that they needed medical attention from someone who had the right security clearance. Calling specifically for a medic that served in the ANBU hospital, Kakashi quickly returned with the doctor in tow.

She hurriedly ran checks on the two boys, and gasped at the sight of the cursed seals. While Sasuke's looked like regular black ink on his skin, deceptively similar to a normal tattoo, Naruto's looked much more malevolent. It was the twisted comma design, but a ring of jagged lines surrounded it. It looked like a cancerous growth, spreading its evil effects slowly but surely.

"Kakashi-san, I need to speak with you in private." She beckoned him into her personal office.

Folding her arms across her chest, she got right to the point. "What happened to them in the Forest of Death? I've only ever heard of this once before, and that's connected with a certain S-class missing-nin we both know about."

Kakashi sighed. "Yes, it's what you think it is. We got news at HQ about a Code Red alert issued for a sighting of Orochimaru. Mitarashi Anko was dispatched and had an unsuccessful conflict with him."

The doctor gasped. "Well, I can tell you those seals are going to be a lot of trouble. Actually, that's an understatement. Those seals have the potential for dangers we can't even imagine. We're not going to be able to remove them, though. We can still release them, but we have to keep both of them under careful surveillance. What I can tell right now, though is that both need bed rest and the blond one needs painkillers—strong ones."

They re-entered the ward, and the doctor hooked Naruto and Sasuke up to IV drips. Sakura was asleep in her chair, completely exhausted, and Kakashi took a chair next to his little team.

For once he didn't have his infamous orange book out. He just sat. And waited.

* * *

**A/N: Like I said before, I'm really sorry about the long wait. I planned out most of what's going to happen, and for any of you that are wondering, this _is_ going to be a completed fic, I'm not going to trail along the whole manga storyline. I'm thinking around five more chapters?  
**

**About this chap, I took the liberty of changing some things around (ex. Kakashi appearing instead of Iruka, etc.) This chapter was a bit more serious than the others, and I promise there'll be some more humor in the next one, which by the way I have no idea when I'll complete. I'm thinking an update in one to two weeks. Two weeks is the max.  
**

**If you're wondering what's going on, I'll be posting updates on progress or any announcements on my profile. I don't know about you guys, but I'm not especially fond of "Chapters" that are actually just Author's notes. Right, bye for now!**


	10. Chapter 10

**Disclaimer: Naruto isn't mine.**

Thanks for all the reviews, everyone. They really help, and if you have advice, I most likely will try to take it.

Some warning though, this chapter has some darker topics, ex) attempted self-harm. In my opinion, it's not too bad, but I give fair warning.

Enjoy!

* * *

Kakashi looked up at the sound of the door sliding open. "Anko-san!"

"I need to speak to Shortie." She hissed urgently in an effort to keep her voice down.

Kakashi gestured toward the two boys incapacitated on the beds. "You can try, but they're in no state."

Anko shrugged. "I can get them up." She strode to Naruto and flicked him in the forehead. "Oy, Get up Shortie." Naruto's eyelids flickered by he didn't wake.

"C'mon, we need to talk." Naruto rolled over in his sleep. "Mmf, nghh, not now," he grumbled.

Anko's face gained a predatory grin. "SHORTY!"

"AGH!" Naruto's eyes snapped open, and he slammed a fist towards the mouth that had issued the offending remark. Anko hastily backed away to avoid it.

On the side, Kakashi's mouth dropped open in disbelief. "You can't be serious. He's supposed to be out until tomorrow afternoon!"

Anko smiled. "I'm very serious. Actually, this serious." She waved a paper with the ANBU seal on the bottom. "Let's go. Up, Uzumaki."

"I'm not a dog, Anko," Naruto groused as she dragged him out of the room, down a few corridors, and thrust him into a small, private room. Naruto glared at her, and then glanced around. "Is it secure?"

Anko nodded a yes, and Naruto took in a deep breath.

"WHAT THE HECK WERE YOU THINKING?!? I NEEDED BACK UP, AND ONLY _NOW_ I SEE YOU?!?"

Anko cringed. "Uh, well..."

"Come _on_! I was out for say, TWO DAYS, and you don't show up?!"

"But, I w—"

"NO BUTS. Do you know what happened to me?! HUH? HUH?!"

"Yes, I was d—"

"NO FREAKIN EXCU—"

"WILL YOU LET ME FINISH?!?"

"NO! ARE YO—"

"JUST SHUT UP AND LET ME FIN—"

"NO FREAKIN WA—" Naruto stopped as he saw Anko's mouth frozen in mid-retort. They both took in the scene. Seconds ticked by.

"Oh my g—hahahah" The team members broke out into laughter. The scene had been priceless, it really had been. Both had been red in the face from yelling, and Anko had had to look downward at the much shorter blond.

After collecting themselves, Anko restarted the "conversation." "Ok, let's do this over again. Talk."

Naruto's face darkened. "We encountered Orochimaru when I first contacted you. I fought with him, and I had to reveal my identity to Sakura and Sasuke. The communicator broke some time during the fight, so I couldn't get to you afterwards, not that I really was conscious for that long. I mean, he marked me."

"Mark, what do you me—oh..." Anko touched her own. "Dang."

"Yeah. It's been hurting like there's no tomorrow every time I try to use my chakra."

"Mmm, that happens. At least you're alive. Have you asked _him_ for help?" Naruto knew she was referring to his "tenant."

"Our communication has been pretty blotchy since the seal acted up the second time. Kyuubi-nii did something to block one aspect of the seal, but it seems like the remaining parts of the cursed seal are kind of rejecting Kyuubi. I really hope it's just a periodic thing."

"Hmmm, interesting. Well, we need to get you sorted out, but intelligence has been getting some information about well...nothing. It's really fishy. We know that somebody's going to try something big soon, but we don't know what." Anko peered at Naruto. "I dunno if we can really put you to work, though, after that seal and all."

Naruto rolled his eyes. "Ugh, I know, and what's all this condescending talk? I _am_ your superior, and you would do well not to forget that." Kitsune glared at Anko.

"Eep, sorry, Kitsune-taichou." Anko cringed a little. "I should I also report to you my failed encounter with Orochimaru. We uncovered some disturbing evidence of him, and after he escaped from you, I attempted to engage him in combat. I obviously didn't succeed. That's why I didn't come to back you up. I apologize."

Kitsune's eyes widened. "Anko, are you sure you're really ok? I know your history with him..."

Anko scratched the back of her head nervously, "Ah, don't worry about me. What are you going to do now?"

"Naruto's going to try to stay in the exam to see what I can learn. Tighten security around the village, and up the spies on...hmm," Naruto thought for a minute, "Yeah, on Sound especially. From what I heard, place reeks of Orochimaru. We'll need more surveillance on Kabuto, that genin in the exam. He seems really fishy."

Anko nodded. "Hai, taichou. I'll get it done." Kitsune nodded and winked at her. "See ya."

Nudging open the door, Anko slipped out of the room. Moments later, Naruto bounced out back to the medical center.

* * *

When Naruto got back to the room, Kakashi was still sitting in his chair, and Sakura was nowhere to be seen.

"Yo." Kakashi nodded his head in greeting. "I have some good news. They're allowing a postponement of one day for you guys to rest and be ready."

"Yay! Thanks Kaka-sensei! Where's Sakura by the way?" Naruto was bouncing up and down with excitement.

"I think she went off with the medic. She showed some interest, and it should be good for her." Naruto nodded in agreement just as the pink-haired kunoichi walked in.

"Well speak of the devil!"

"Naruto-kun! You're awake! Are you feeling alright?" Naruto nodded, a little overwhelmed by the enthusiasm. She kept talking. "I learned about the basics of being a medic, and it's so cool!"

"I'm glad you found something you have a passion for, Sakura-chan!" Naruto gave her a dazzling smile.

Sakura gave him a warm smile in return, but then turned to their remaining teammate. "Has Sasuke-kun improved at all?"

Kakashi shook his head. "He hasn't woken up." Just then, Sasuke mumbled something incoherent, and Naruto's eyes widened.

"Kaka-sensei is a miracle worker! You only need to utter someone's name and they come to you!" Naruto grinned like a maniac, and Kakashi and Sakura humored him with quiet laughter.

"Oi, quiet down, dobe. You're making my head hurt." Sasuke sat up in the hospital bed and looked around.

"YAY! You're awake Sasuke-teme!" Naruto scurried over to his team mate. "You feeling better?"

"Hn." Sasuke covered his ears to protest the loud exclamations of the overenthusiastic blond.

Suddenly, Naruto leaned in close to Sasuke and asked, "Do you trust me?" Sasuke looked at him with a raised eyebrow and slowly nodded. Naruto had just gotten through to Kyuubi, and with his chakra, leaned forward even more and sunk his now-sharpened canines into Sasuke's cursed seal.

Sasuke let out a strangled yelp of pain as the fire began to spread through his body again. Kakashi was up on his feet in an instant. "Naruto! What are you doing?!" He strode over to the two and attempted to tug him off, but Naruto clung stubbornly to Sasuke. Sasuke gripped the bed sheets as the burning sensation intensified. His eyes rolled back in his head.

Now, Kakashi was furiously trying to get Naruto off of Sasuke. "Kaka-sensei, I think that you should let go." Kakashi turned to Sakura. "Have you gone mad, Sakura? Naruto's _biting_ Sasuke!"

Sakura nodded. "I know." Naruto mumbled "geroff" though his mouthful of Sasuke shoulder.

Kakashi didn't know what to do. Had the world gone insane? Was he that much of a failure of a team leader that his students were A. Trying to eat each other or B. Didn't care at all if they saw it happening before there eyes? He intensified his efforts to remove Naruto.

Sakura shook her head. Was sensei really this thick? Naruto obviously knew what he was doing...right? 'STOP BEING A WIMP AND GO DO SOMETHING!' Inner Sakura prompted her to action. She grabbed Kakashi's arm and tugged it from Naruto's waist.

"Sakura!" Kakashi was almost in hysterics now. "I didn't sign up to deal with little wannabe cannibals, scratch that, cannibals in action!"

Sakura rolled her eyes. Even she saw that what Naruto was doing was important. Too frustrated by her sensei's ignorance, she blurted out, "Kaka-sensei, Naruto's not a cannibal. He's a freaking _ANBU_!"

Kakashi froze for a second to process the information. "wha—WHAT?!" His mind whirred through the new found information to test its implications. 'Oh Kami, _Naruto_ is my ANBU team leader?!' It was too much too fast for him. WHUMP. Kakashi's body hit the floor in a dead faint.

"Geez, he can handle people's guts spilling out of them, but he can't handle this?" Sakura shook her head.

Meanwhile, Naruto was letting Kyuubi do the work of altering Sasuke's seal to free him from Orochimaru's influence. His own mind was busy trying to keep the dark waves of chakra from his own cursed seal from interfering. Finally, Kyuubi was done, and Naruto released Sasuke with a nasty squelching sound from his teeth sliding out.

WHUMP. Unsupported, Sasuke's once again unconscious body fell flat on the hospital bed. WHUMP. Naruto, exhausted from the effort also collapsed on the floor.

"Ehhhhhh..." Sakura looked around at all the unconscious bodies around her. "Yeesh, men are too fragile.

* * *

_Naruto's Inner World_

Naruto stood in the depths of his mind and approached the cage of Kyuubi cautiously. "Kyuu-nii?"

A growl emanated from the darkness. "Kit, get away from here. It's dangerous." The black chakra was still running rampant around the place. It flared suddenly around the bars of Kyuubi's cage. "RUN, KIT."

Naruto bolted immediately, sprinting for his life, but the black chakra surged behind him. "No, NO, NO!" Naruto tried to get out of his own mind-world, but it wasn't working. The chakra was gaining, as if it were its own entity, bent on chasing him until it consumed him.

"AHHH! Naruto felt it touch his hand, and where it brushed against him, an intense burning sensation was accompanied by a dark black mark. 'This is the end, I guess.' The chakra was almost upon him, but then—

* * *

"NARUTO! WAKE UP. " Sakura sobbed. Kakashi and Sasuke were in normal states of unconsciousness, but as she watched, Naruto had started to jerk uncontrollably, and a strange black mark had suddenly appeared on his hand. It seemed to sink in, embedding itself into his flesh. For some reason, the medic hadn't come immediately when she had asked for one, and she was really worried.

"WAKE UP!" Sakura slapped him on the face. "Please, please—" She hiccupped from her tears, but, the slap seemed to have done the trick. Naruto sat up and looked around wildly. His breathing came in gasps and pants. "Whoa!"

Sakura had grabbed him in a crushing hug. "Naruto-kun, I was so worried." her tears soaked into his shirt.

"Sakura-chan! Don't worry. I'm ok now." He patted her awkwardly on the head, but he had never felt so happy. When had Sakura ever cared this much about him? She seemed to have become mature and more rational in a short period of time.

"Naruto-kun, you were jerking wildly, and then that _thing_ appeared on your hand." Sakura was still a little hysterical. Naruto glanced down at his hand, and was shocked to see that the mark had accompanied him outside of his mind. 'Ugh.' He moved it around a bit and was relieved to find that it hadn't really changed anything in his hand. 'That's really weird.'

Sakura stood up again and took a step back. "Naruto-kun...I think we should talk."

Naruto's eyes hardened a little. "Hmm, yeah. I guess so, but let's wait for them to wake up first." He gestured over to Sasuke and Kakashi. Within a few minutes, they had come to.

Kakashi was calmer this time, and Sasuke sat there silently while Sakura looked at Naruto expectantly. "Well, how about you tell me how much you know so far?"

Sasuke grunted. "You're ANBU." Sakura nodded and elaborated a little. "Are you Kitsune, Naruto-kun?"

Naruto nodded. "Yeah."

"But how?!" Kakashi burst out. Naruto turned to him. "Kakashi, I think I need to give you a separate explanation later." He tilted his head slightly at the other two in the room. "But, I can tell you guys this. My identity has just been compromised. If you two know, anyone can."

"But, we'd never tell anybody!" Sakura blurted.

Naruto waved his hand. "I don't doubt that you'd back me up, but really, if torture and an investigation team from an enemy comes into play..." He shuddered and then continued. "But, I trust you. There's a reason it was confidential, but if I can't trust my team, nothing would work." He gave them a tired grin. "We'll just be extra careful then, ne?"

Kakashi looked at his young student/superior captain again. He carried a darkness in his eyes that told him that it really was Kitsune even if his outward appearance didn't, but he knew that there were ways around that, henge and all.

Sasuke wasn't betraying a single emotion on his face at all, but he was taking it rather well. He understood the need for power, and Naruto no doubt had need for that earlier in his life. The difference between Sasuke and Naruto, however, was that Naruto had achieved this level of power while Sasuke still wasn't anywhere near strong enough to defeat his cursed brother. He thought a little more and a faint smile quirked his lips. 'I'm glad at least that he's on my team, and not against me.'

Sasuke nodded at Naruto. "Hn, I understand. You'll still always be Naruto to me though."

Sakura agreed, and Naruto hopped out of the hospital bed that Sakura had put him on before. "Mmkay, no more talk of it if we can manage, ne? Love you guys." He winked at skipped out the door, pulling Kakashi behind him.

* * *

"Yosh!" Naruto was sitting happily on a bucket of cleaning fluid while Kakashi was leaning against some brooms lining the wall.

"Maa, Naruto, we need to talk, but in a broom closet?" Kakashi quirked an eyebrow.

"Hehehe." Naruto grinned, and then Kakashi saw a glint of something else in the blue eyes before the younger spoke again. "Kakashi-san, I know that in some teams it is not unusual for subordinates to know the identity of their taichou and vice versa. However, out team is not a normal team, as is quite obvious. I _will_ take the necessary steps to ensure my identity is no more compromised than it already is. And if you do decide to run your mouth? The consequences will be lethal." Kitsune tilted his head slightly to peer at his subordinate. "Got it?"

Kakashi was a bit shaken by such a threatening speech coming from the blond. "Ha—Hai, taichou."

Kitsune nodded curtly and then Naruto ran forward to give Kakashi a hug. "I'm glad you know now though. It gets tiring sometimes." Kakashi was a bit bewildered by the many changes of personality.

"Uh, yes, of course, Naruto." He pat his little student on the back. Naruto stepped back from his sensei. He winked. "Of course, if I don't do you in, some random cleaning instrument will." Naruto stuck out his tongue and raced out of the broom closet, slamming the door behind him with enough force to...

Kakashi's one visible eye widened as he caught sight of the wire running from the door to...'Blast it! How did he even do that?' Kakashi was bombarded by a mini-avalance of various cleaning supplies.

Naruto's snigger was heard outside the closet door before he scampered away. 'Hehe, mission accomplished.'

* * *

That night, the examinees who had made it in time to the tower were given rooms to stay in until the next morning. Naruto tossed and turned in bed, unable to fall asleep after he had made his report to Jiji.

"Ugh." Unable to take it anymore, Naruto slipped out of bed and padded over the middle of the floor in his small room. He sat down on the hard wood and focused on trying to tap into his chakra.

Almost immediately, the black chakra slithering through his system came to answer his probe. Naruto's eyes snapped back open. 'I guess that was a bad idea. What should I do?' For once, Naruto felt very alone. He couldn't even contact Kyuubi-nii regularly anymore. He sat still in the middle of the floor and wept in despair.

* * *

_Next Day_

Kakashi knocked on Naruto's door. If he didn't get up now, he wasn't going to make it to the next part of the exam. "Naruto?" He received no answer, so he decided to enter uninvited. "Naruto!"

The blond was sitting on the floor, and tears were streaming out of his eyes. His clothes were wet from the unchecked tears, and a kunai was being grasped so tightly in one of his hands that his knuckles were white.

Kakashi knelt down, and gently pried the kunai from his hand. "Naruto, what's wrong?" Naruto didn't answer. He just kept staring ahead, and the tears kept dripping. Kakashi waited for a few moments before asking, "Does it hurt?" Naruto finally turned his head to look at his sensei. "I tried to get it off, but it didn't work."

Kakashi looked at the kunai more closely and clearly saw dried blood on its sharpened point. "Where did you cut yourself? Are you ok?" Naruto looked at him with haunted eyes.

"It didn't work. I couldn't get it out."

Kakashi grabbed Naruto's shoulders and tried looking for any wounds or open cuts.

"I told you. It didn't work. It wouldn't come off. It wouldn't let me." Naruto's voice was dead, devoid of any emotion. As he said the words, he thought about the situation last night.

At one point, he was so desperate, he had taken a kunai to himself, attempting to rid his body of the physical reminder of the curse bestowed upon him by Orochimaru. No matter how hard he tried to dig in the kunai, the black chakra had repelled his attempts. He snorted derisively. Oh yes, Orochimaru had won, not in the way he'd probably intended, but Naruto was broken.

Kakashi finished his inspection, but he knew that there were still wounds, ones he couldn't see. "Naruto, talk to me." He begged Naruto with his eyes.

Naruto just looked at him.

On a hunch, Kakashi questioned Naruto. "What? You think that this, _this_, is marking you as useless?" He pointed to the cursed seal. "This _thing_ is enough to break you? Come on! Naruto, no, Kitsune. We need you now. If you're broken by this, everyone will feel the effects. Have you forgotten all your power? You don't depend on others very well, do you? Well then, have you forgotten everything you've done, all the power inside of you? Everything you've accomplished? You, powerless?" Kakashi snorted. "Yeah, and I'm a bowl of ramen."

During Kakashi's pep talk, Naruto had slowly begun to wake up from his depressed stupor. Kakashi smiled on the inside. It was working!

Naruto gave him a weak smile. "Did you say ramen?"

Kakashi's eyes shined. "There's all the ramen in the world out there for you, Naruto. You just have to live." He turned away and grasped the doorknob, stopping for a few last words. "Come on, Naruto. We're waiting for you."

As he left the room, Sakura and Sasuke were waiting anxiously. "How is he?" Kakashi smiled at both of them. "He'll be alright now."

Inside, Naruto stayed in his position for a few more seconds. Then, he nodded to himself. It was time to go. Standing, he fished out a new outfit from his seal, changed, and marched out the door.

"OHAYO, EVERYONE!" Naruto felt his grin coming back full force as he bellowed outside of his room. His waiting team smiled at him, and he ran down the hall, calling over his shoulder. "What are you guys waiting for?!"

Sakura looked over at Sasuke. "Should we tell him?" Sasuke's face gained a smirk. "Hn, he'll figure it out eventually."

A series of indignant shrieks and resulting Naruto screams filtered back down the hallway. Minutes later, a dazed looking Naruto stumbled back down the hall to his waiting team mates.

"How was your visit to the tower's falcon roost?"

Naruto shot a glare at all of them. "Why didn't you tell me?! I ran in and knocked over a rack a couple were sleeping on."

Sakura couldn't meet his eyes from the giggles she was hiding behind her hand, and Kakashi was looking innocently back at him. "Well, should we go now?"

* * *

Team 7 was unsurprisingly the last team to arrive in the arena-like area. As they stepped out onto one of the raised balconies, the Hokage started to speak. "Ah, we're all here now. I congratulate all of you for making this far. Gekko Hayate will explain the situation now."

The sickly-looking man stepped up. "An unusual amount of genin made it past the second exam this year. To cut down the number, we will be having a few preliminary matches. Who you will be fighting will be picked randomly, and the two competitors' names will be displayed on the board."

Everyone turned to look at the board. A few seconds passed.

Then, two names popped up.

"Uzumaki Naruto vs. Yakushi Kabuto."

* * *

**A/N: Hmm, there was a lot of dialogue in this chapter. I wanted to deal with some business, and show some more character emotions. Action next time though! **

**Also, if you guys have any time for a few clicks, on my profile, I have a poll. I'm just curious if you guys think I'm a guy or a girl from my writing. Thanks!**


	11. Chapter 11

**Disclaimer: The usual...I don't own Naruto.**

This chapter is brought to you by our friend caffeine. It was really starting to bother me. Three weeks?! I'm really sorry. I had been planning on posting a few days after Chapter 10, but a lot of things got in the way. Hope this is worth the wait. (Waring: Not proofread yet. Read at your own risk.)

* * *

Naruto scanned the room for his opponent. 'Kabuto, eh?' To his surprise, he didn't see any of Kabuto's teammates in the room. 'I didn't think that they would resign. This is strange.'

In a show of his usual brash enthusiasm, Naruto vaulted over the railing to land on the floor below. Kabuto appeared at the bottom of the staircase. As they faced off, Hayate glanced at both of them before waving his hand. "Begin."

Everyone held their breath as they waited for what would happen next. 'Here goes nothing!' Naruto decided to act in character and charge at his opponent head on. He swung a fist at Kabuto's head, but Kabuto quickly side stepped and slapped Naruto's arm at the elbow, producing a sharp cracking sound.

Naruto stopped in his tracks at the pain signals coming from his now throbbing elbow. He knew it wasn't broken, but he also knew that Kabuto had held back just enough that it wouldn't break. Naruto narrowed his eyes, and prepared for another charge at the still impassive Kabuto.

Naruto made to punch again, but instead lashed his leg out, kicking Kabuto's knees out from under him. "Uff." Kabuto grunted as he fell forward, and managed to swing his elbow to Naruto's face. On instinct, Naruto leaned out of the way and drove his fist into Kabuto's back. WHAM. Kabuto hit the floor awkwardly, and his glasses skidded away from him.

Confused as to why it was so easy, Naruto stopped for a second. In that second, Kabuto's body disappeared in a cloud of smoke, and a fist drove into Naruto's stomach, making him double over, blood dribbling out of his mouth. "Ugh." He retaliated, kicking again to crack against Kabuto's knees. Both skidded away from each other, panting.

'That's enough of taijutsu.' Kabuto pushed his glasses up his nose, and stepped forward into his next move.

Naruto caught a flash of purple and silver before a hand grasped his throat. A greenish glow flared around the hand, but it wasn't for any healing purposes. "AGH!" Naruto choked out a scream as he felt it drawing up chakra, pulling up the black chakra to the surface of the tight control he was now struggling to exert on it.

Looking into his opponent's eyes, Naruto noticed a hard glint in Kabuto's eyes that had never been there before. The malicious intent gave away the fact that Kabuto knew exactly what he was doing, and Naruto began to panic both from the asphyxiation and new knowledge.

A resounding crack echoed through the room as Naruto had desperately slammed his head into Kabuto's in a vicious move. Kabuto's hold naturally slackened, and Naruto seized the opportunity, whipping out two kunai with exploding tags, bowling over Kabuto and pinning him to the floor with them. BOOM. Floor tiles cracked in jagged cobweb patterns as Naruto leapt away.

However, Naruto was dismayed to find Kabuto emerging from the smoke of the explosion relatively unscathed. 'Dang, I really should have stabbed him instead.' Kabuto moved again, this time with his own kunai in hand, ready to slice his younger opponent.

Naruto matched him blow for blow, and hurled shuriken right into Kabuto's face. Kabuto bent backwards to avoid them, and Naruto took the chance to slam his forearm straight down onto Kabuto's midsection.

Up on the observation decks, Kakashi nodded in approval. 'His control is good enough that other people won't know he's actually holding back. This could have been over as soon as it started.' Kakashi knew that Kitsune was an extremely proficient user of taijutsu.

Naruto lifted his foot to deal the last blow to knock Kabuto unconscious, but a twinge of queasiness in his abdominal area made him a millisecond too slow. Kabuto rolled over and out of the way. He grabbed Naruto's ankle as it came down, and his hand flared blue again.

"AGH!" Naruto cried out in pain as he felt something sever inside his leg. 'Must have been a chakra scalpel.' Throwing his body backwards, Naruto executed a back flip to get away from any immediate danger. However, he felt a now familiar searing pain stab through the seal near his shoulder.

Sasuke's eyes narrowed as he saw the pained expression flit across Naruto's features. He nudged Kakashi who nodded in response. As Naruto moved, the neck of his jumpsuit shifted to show them what had happened. A second ring of markings had surrounded his seal...

* * *

_Meanwhile in Naruto's Inner World_

Kyuubi growled at the rippling puddle of black chakra just outside his cage. It had been staying around the bars for a while now, and Kyuubi was getting a bit anxious.

Right in front of his eyes, it started bubbling and congealing. Kyuubi narrowed his huge eyes. **What is happening?** It continued to solidify, until a goopy shape formed. A coiling body emerged, easily distinguishable as some sort of serpent.

_Hehehe._ It snickered evilly. _Nice to meet you, fox._ It spat out the last word like a bad taste.

**What are you? **Kyuubi was curious but also wary. He bared his teeth to show he wasn't afraid.

_Oh? You don't know? Well, isn't that ironic?_ The face of the entity twisted into a smug smirk. _You're the one who created me, anyhow._

**WHAT? **

It hissed. _I must thank you, though. Without you, I'dve just remained a pathetic collection of regular energy. But now, due to your demonic influence, look at me! I'm a conscious being. Hahaha. I bet you didn't see that coming, you oversized fur ball._ Another round of the mad laughter echoed through the surroundings.

Kyuubi no Kitsune tried to snap at it, but the bars in place kept him captive.

* * *

Sasuke and Kakashi's eyes widened as they saw the second tier of markings. "I think we should call off the match, Kakashi-sensei." Sasuke whispered urgently.

Kakashi thought for a moment. "I don't know. If Naruto hasn't done that already, he must still be in it for a reason..." Kakashi kept a calm demeanor, but on the inside, he was anxiously wondering if he was making the right decision to let the match go on.

Sasuke reluctantly acknowledged his sensei's decision and continued watching. Sakura was also worried, watching Naruto's every move carefully.

Kabuto got back to his feet and smirked. His earlier attempt to pull the seal's influence to the surface seemed to have worked. Naruto rubbed the seal for a second before he turned to face his opponent again. Not surprisingly, he didn't initiate the next attack.

Kabuto sprang forward, covering the distance in between them quickly. He kicked high to smash into Naruto's temple, but his target quickly ducked under and grabbed his leg. Not missing a beat, Kabuto pushed off with his other foot while pushing his kicking leg forward. The end result was Naruto being bowled over with Kabuto straddling his waist.

Kabuto's hands went once again to Naruto's neck as he struggled to get out from under the larger nin. The proctor looked ready to stop Kabuto, but as Kabuto looked at Naruto's face, normally playful blue eyes hardened into ice cold ones that cut straight through him.

As his instincts of self-preservation kicked in, Kitsune surfaced to deal with the situation. With a surge of strength that everyone else were surprised to see that Naruto had, he bucked up and slammed Kabuto to the ground in his place.

Kitsune stared down dispassionately at his prey, and for once in his wretched life, Kabuto felt fear, fear of the severe gut-wrenching variety. With an almost bored expression, Kitsune drew out a kunai and brought the blade to Kabuto's neck. It pressed just hard enough to draw a thin line of red.

As Kitsune made to move his hand again, Kabuto closed his eyes. However, the pressure disappeared from his neck as he heard a collective gasp from the spectators.

* * *

_Back in Naruto's Inner World_

_That's not going to work. You're in there, and I'm out here._ It snickered as Kyuubi tried to get at it once again. _Now, I can just erode away that stupid human's mind, and I'll be free to do what I will!_

**NO!** At the mention of Naruto, Kyuubi felt a rage come up inside of him. With a roar, a huge wave of red chakra exploded out of the cage and slammed into the serpent.

_WOAH._ It tried to push back with its own black chakra force, but the Kyuubi's rage sent more and more red chakra at it. Realizing that being there was to its own disadvantage, the black snake tried to slither down Naruto's other chakra channels, but it didn't make it. Swamped by the boiling lava-like chakra, the cursed black chakra stood no chance against it. It was completely consumed by the much more potent stock of the demon Kyuubi.

However, Kyuubi's actions were not without consequence. The scorching chakra took its toll on Naruto's body, burning his system even worse than the cursed seal's chakra had.

Kyuubi howled. **'I'm so sorry, Kit, but it was the lesser of the evils.' **

* * *

Kitsune reeled backwards. 'Not again!' Fire blossomed within his veins and he struggled to control the sensation that was at least ten times worse than the pain from the cursed seal.

Kabuto leapt up instantly, happily deluded that it was an effect from the cursed seal. 'Orochimaru-sama will be happy at the strength of this seal.'

He was, however, sadly mistaken. Kitsune, already exposed to such pain from the seal before, approached it with an almost clinical attitude. Simply collecting all the pain and shoving it somewhere else for the moment, he decided to end the fight quickly.

Without any bells or whistles, Kitsune threw himself forward and smacked Kabuto hard on the temple. He dropped like a sack of potatoes, as the spectators looked on in mild surprise. Most of the other Konoha-nin were thinking along the lines of "Wow, he's better than the last time I saw him."

Naruto was declared the winner, and he strode back up the stairs to his team. "Good job, Naruto!" Sakura gave him a quick hug while Sasuke gave him a rare smile. He nodded curtly at both of them, and turned to sit down promptly on the floor against the wall.

The next match was called. "Tenten vs. Temari." As the two kunoichi squared off, Kitsune's block on the pain began to weaken and he let it slowly seep back into his system. 'Kyuubi-nii, thanks, but it hurts like there's no tomorrow.'

**I'm so sorry, but we had to clear that stupid seal up. I think I purged it out of you...but I don't know what the long term affects my chakra will have on you. Sorry, Kit.**

As the agonizing sensations spread throughout his body, he tried to relax, but his usual control of his body wasn't as strong, allowing shivering to pass through. With the sounds of the fight going on in the background, Kitsune closed his eyes and rested his head against the wall as he tried to conceal the shudders wracking his body.

He felt a finger tap him once on the cheek lightly and cracked open an eye. Using one handed ANBU communication signals, Kakashi asked if he was alright. Signaling back with a shaky hand at his side, he indicated that it was under control. Kakashi didn't seem satisfied and nudged him again for more information. Kitsune snapped back in his next signals that he was fine and again that it was under control. Kakashi's concerned one-eyed gaze still stayed on him after that, but didn't try to prod for more information again.

He missed the whole match, but was able to stand up a bit unsteadily right before the one after the next was called. "Yamanaka Ino vs. Haruno Sakura."

Kitsune recollected his wits to revert to his other personality. "You can do it, Sakura-chan!" Naruto gave her a grin and a thumbs up to boost her enthusiasm. She smiled headed down to face her opponent.

Within a few moments, Ino was calling childish taunts at Sakura who was busying herself with attacking and defending in the most efficient ways she could. Frustrated by the lack of effect her verbal attacks were making, Ino decided to use her clan technique, Shintenshen no jutsu. Barreling Sakura over and knocking her to the floor, Ino pinned her down before quickly forming the correct seal and transferring her mind to the pink-haired girl.

'Hehe, I've won!' Ino lifted Sakura's hand and started to open her mouth to speak when she felt a presence alongside her.

"Not so fast, Ino-pig." A strange version of Sakura was grinning evilly at her. Black outlined with white, the monstrously large sub-conscious of Sakura made Ino freeze in fear. "You'll never beat me so easily." It cackled and reached out with an enormous hand to engulf Ino.

"AHH!" Ino snapped back to her body, screaming, as she fled from Sakura's mind.

Sakura brought up her fist and punched Ino hard in the face, sending her flying and crashing to the floor in an ungraceful heap. "Whew." She stood up and dusted off her clothes.

"Winner: Haruno Sakura." Sakura grinned as she went back upstairs to be congratulated by her teammates.

Naruto gripped the railing hard as he continued to feel the after effects of Kyuubi's chakra storm ripping through his body. He took a deep breath and turned to face his teammates. "YAY! Sakura-cha, you won!" He grinned and squished her into a group hug with Sasuke.

"Mmrff, Naffufo...camf bfeef..." Naruto was oblivious to the attempts to speak by his teammates until Sakura started turning a rather vibrant shade of red. "Woah! You ok, Sakura-chan?" He released an indignant Uchiha and wheezing Sakura, and scratched his head sheepishly. "Hehe...sorry?"

Sakura batted him in the back of the head half-heartedly as she tried to regain her breath. "Baka." Sasuke looked the other way and pointedly ignored the blond who looked at both of them. "Ano...are you guys mad at me?"

"Hn."

"..." Naruto wilted a little before brightening up again. "Look, it's your turn, Sasuke-teme!"

Sasuke whipped his head around to the display board to read...

"Uchiha Sasuke vs. Kankuro"

Sasuke turned to calmly stride down the steps, but a hand on his shoulder stopped him. "Be careful, Sasuke." Naruto's cool gaze met his own, and Sasuke nodded in acknowledgement.

"You can do it, Sasuke-kun!" Sakura gave him her encouragement as well as he squared off against the Suna nin.

The match began.

The opponents scrutinized each other, not making a move at first. Then, Sasuke darted forward. 'A straight-forward attack?' Kankuro blocked the punch with his arm and ducked as a foot came flying towards his head.

Sasuke landed on the floor, skidding to a stop as he panted slightly. 'What is that thing?' Kankuro had taken the bundle off his back, letting the bandaged lump thump on the floor.

Kankuro smirked. "What kind of chance does a rookie like you have?" He beckoned with a finger. "Come on. Is that all you got?"

Sasuke's eyes narrowed. He started forming hand seals but then he glanced up at his team mates. Naruto shook his head, mouthing "Don't!" Sasuke halted his movements immediately.

'What was that?' Kankuro stared skeptically at his opponent. "What, too scared your ninjutsu is too wimpy?"

Sasuke's only reply was another attack. CRACK. This time the hit connected right into Kankuro's face, causing...'cracks?' Sasuke knew something was off right away. He altered the course of his kick mid-action, instead turning to attempt to get away and think over his next move.

Sasuke wasn't fast enough. A wooden hand grabbed his foot, jerking him to the ground as the bandaged package "Kankuro" was carrying before twitched. The wrappings fell away to reveal the true Kankuro, hands glowing blue from the chakra threads he used to control his puppet now with a firm hold on Sasuke.

As the porcelain façade of the puppet cracked and finished falling off, Kankuro smirked as he twitched his fingers, causing the puppet's other arm to extend forward to pin down the struggling Sasuke more firmly. "Pathetic." Kankuro's smug smile didn't hide any of his confidence in ending the match.

"OY! COME ON SASUKE! YOU CAN'T BE BEATEN THAT EASILY, CAN YOU, TEME?" Naruto yelled at Sasuke. 'Geez...a puppet user?'

Still pinned to the floor by the puppet, Sasuke jerked upwards at the sound of his teammate's voice. Without thinking, he wrestled his arms from under himself to form the seals. Snake, Ram, Monkey, Boar, Horse, Tiger. An inhale, and WHOOSH. The fireball ignited right in the puppet's face.

"AGH!" Kankuro jerked Karasu (his puppet) back, but the damage was done. Flames licked at the puppet's wooden exterior. Sasuke scrambled to his feet. The mark on his shoulder was throbbing pretty painfully, but he only had his objective in mind.

While Kankuro attempted to put out the flames quickly, Sasuke drew his shuriken and launched them at his occupied opponent. Kankuro still managed to deflect them with an arm of Karasu, but he wasn't fast enough to completely dodge Sasuke's kunai. It sliced a gash in his arm which opened up to have dark red blood seep into his otherwise black clothing.

"You little brat!" Kankuro no longer attempted to extinguish the fire on Karasu. The resulting flaming puppet was possibly even more dangerous than before. Sasuke dove to the ground to avoid the fire that swiped by his head.

'Unn...' He winced as an internal flame licked around his shoulder from his use of chakra before. Steadying his breath, Sasuke concentrated for a moment. The tracks of the cursed seal slowed down somewhat and wriggled a little more before in a burst of pure mental determination, Sasuke forced it back into a dormant state.

Pausing had cost him precious time, though. Karasu swooped by again, this time launching various sharpened weapons at its target on the ground. Sasuke rolled quickly to avoid them. He only barely registered a hazy mist leaking from the puppet before he had to move again.

'I have to end this now, or I won't last much longer...' Sasuke decided to risk a flare up from the seal and used Shunshin (Body Flicker) to slide up behind the puppet wielder. WHACK. An elbow directly to Kankuro's head did the job. Kankuro keeled over and Karasu collapsed in a charred heap as its manipulator lost consciousness.

"Winner: Uchiha Sasuke." The words barely left Hayate's mouth before Sasuke made a choking noise. A wheeze left his lungs as he clutched at his chest. He sank to his knees and the whites of his eyes showed as the rolled backwards.

Naruto vaulted over the side of the railing and ran forwards to catch his teammate as he collapsed. "What's going on?!" Naruto checked Sasuke's breathing to find that it wasn't happening anymore. "HE'S NOT BREATHING!" He set Sasuke down on the floor carefully and prepared to perform CPR. Just as Naruto leaned in, a hand pulled him back by the shoulder. "DON'T, NARUTO!"

Sakura held him back as he growled. "What do you think you're d—"

"Sakura is correct, Naruto. This isn't natural heart failure." Kakashi looked up at the opposite side of the observation decks. "Which one of you knows where he keeps the antidotes?" He directed the question to the Suna nin watching almost disinterestedly. It was the girl who answered. "I'll get them."

Temari reached into her pouch and activated the sealing scroll with one hand inside to prevent prying eyes. She tossed a vial down to Kakashi who instantly went to inject its contents into Sasuke. Tense moments passed as the team waited for the antidote to take effect. Then, Sasuke coughed. A shudder passed through his body, and his breathing started up again. Team 7 let out a collective sigh of relief.

A medic team standing by took Sasuke away on a stretcher to make sure he was ok, and some nin wearing masks covering their mouths moved to remove Karasu and its cloud of vaporized poison from the area.

* * *

_Later that day_

Team 7 was yet again in the medical bay. The matches were over and Naruto, Sakura, Temari, Gaara, Neji, Sasuke, Kiba, and Shikamaru were set to be pitted against each other in two months time.

"You really scared us back there, teme." Naruto sent an annoyed glare at the now conscious Uchiha.

"Hn."

"That's all you're going to say...?"

Sasuke smirked.

"Oh, stop being like that you two. I'm just glad we're through with that now." Sakura rolled her eyes at them.

Kakashi gave them an eye-smile. "Mmm, you guys did pretty well. Let's discuss training arrangements..."

* * *

**A/N: Hrmph, wierd place to cut. Alright, so I really hope this was good. I'll probably tweak it when I'm not pushing back work I'm really supposed to be doing right now. Just a little thing you guys might be interested to know: I actually wrote Chapters 1-half of 8 when I was eleven...a long time ago...**

**Anyway, like last time, can you guys vote in my poll on my profile? It's the same one, but I'm just curious if you readers think I'm a girl or guy from my writing.**

**I really can't promise an update date, but hopefully soon sometime! I'm not going to abandon this story, so never fear!**

* * *

**Some of you guys have brought up that the situation with the cursed seals is a bit confusing/vague. So, here's an explanation of what has happened so far. **

So, basically, Orochimaru's cursed seals contain a part to them that cause the person it is on to lose their minds to Orochimaru as well as the bit that forcefully extracts chakra from the user's body. Kyuubi in this story has used his power to take off the bit that will cause Sasuke and Naruto to have their minds corroded by the seal.

My interpretation also has a piece where chakra from the seal has a dark influence, causing pain to its users if they attempt to activate it. Remember when Sasuke couldn't really use chakra during his fight in the prelims because the seal kept trying to spread and it hurt him? It's like that.

But, in the canon, Naruto never gets a cursed seal. Here, the seal's chakra encounters some of Kyuubi's power, influencing it and allowing it to take a more demonic form. However, Kyuubi overwhelms and destroys it, purging the seal from Naruto's body. But note that this isn't the case with Sasuke.

Sorry about the long explanation. I should have made it more clear in the story. If you have any more questions, feel free to pm me!

* * *

**EDIT: (10/24/04) I haven't been able to really write very often recently because of real life, so while I work on the next chapter (which could take a while), would you like me to post some alternate scenes that "Kitsune" could have taken but didn't? I also have a beginning of a rewrite that I didn't really ever finish. PM me or comment/let me know!**


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